“Make Europe Great Again (MEGA)” Conference Honoring Charlie Kirk Marks a Turning Point for the Conservative Movement in Europe

From October 10 to 11, 2025, the Royal Princess Hotel in Dubrovnik, Croatia, became the focal point of Europe’s conservative awakening. The Make Europe Great Again (MEGA) 6th Conference brought together political leaders, Members of the European Parliament, scholars, authors, and journalists from more than thirty countries. They gathered to honor the late Charlie Kirk, reaffirming their commitment to the values that built Western civilization faith, family, freedom, and truth.

Since its launch in 2024, the MEGA Conference has evolved into a premier platform for conservative dialogue and solidarity across Europe. This sixth edition, held under the theme “A Tribute to Charlie Kirk,” was not merely a commemoration, but a moment to reaffirm the meaning and roots of the conservative movement.

The event was co-hosted by George-Nicolae Simion, President of Romania’s Alianța pentru Unirea Românilor (AUR: Alliance for the Union of Romanians) Party and Vice-President of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Group; Stephen Nikola Bartulica, Croatian Member of Parliament and Member of the European Parliament; and Brian S. Brown, President of the World Congress of Families (WCF) and the International Organization for the Family (IOF). Partner organizations included Turning Point USA (TPUSA), International Organization for the Family (IOF), Croatia’s right-wing political party Dom i Nacionalno Okupljanje (DOMiNO), and the College Republicans of America (CRA). Together, these partners form a transatlantic network dedicated to restoring the moral and cultural foundations of conservatism.

The conference opened on October 10 and spanned four major discussion panels, each addressing the philosophical and political challenges facing Europe’s conservative movement today.

• Discussion Panel 1. Charlie Kirk’s Impact — A Turning Point for the Conservative Movement in the 21st Century

• Discussion Panel 2. Free Speech or Regulated Speech? — Identifying Ways to Defend Freedom of Expression

• Discussion Panel 3. What Defines Europe? — Cultural Heritage, Traditions and the Role of Family

• Discussion Panel 4. The Legacy of Charlie Kirk — Mobilizing a New Generation of Conservatives

  
  

The MEGA 6th Conference was not simply another political meeting, but a turning point a reaffirmation of Europe’s conservative identity and a declaration of its moral direction. Speakers and participants alike emphasized that Europe’s renewal must be grounded not in political calculation, but in faith, courage, and truth. More than a conference, Dubrovnik became the starting line of a movement.

Stephen Bartulica Defines the Battle for Western Civilization

The Make Europe Great Again (MEGA) 6th Conference opened with an address by Stephen Nikola Bartulica, Croatian Member of Parliament and Member of the European Parliament. Before delegates gathered in Dubrovnik, Bartulica declared that “this conference is not merely a discussion, but the beginning of a united effort to defend faith, family, and national sovereignty.”

He began by thanking those who made the event possible, naming George-Nicolae Simion, President of Romania’s AUR Party and Vice-President of the ECR Party, first. The two, representing the conservative leadership of Eastern and Southern Europe, had spent months coordinating the conference amid political resistance and logistical challenges. “I’m proud to call George Simion my friend,” Bartulica said, recalling his visit to Bucharest before Romania’s election and adding, “What we witnessed then must never be repeated.” His statement carried a deeper resonance, a call for Europe’s conservatives to unite against the distortion and control imposed by supranational powers. It reflected the very direction of the MEGA network, which seeks an autonomous and principled alliance of conservative forces across Europe.

Bartulica defined the gathering as both a tribute and a mission. Honoring American conservative leader Charlie Kirk, he said, “We faced many obstacles, but we simply could not accept the option of not holding this conference in his honor.” That single line captured the essence of the event, a union of remembrance and action.

He then shifted from reflection to strategy. “There was a time when people thought what Trump is doing was impossible,” he noted, but added that Europe’s fight is different. “The European Union represents another kind of battlefield,” he warned, pointing to the expansion of technocratic governance that threatens individual and national freedom.

Linking his warning to the symbolism of the host city, he said, “This city once stood as an independent maritime republic that defended liberty through prudence and principle. Its history reminds us that freedom and limited government must coexist.” Politics, he emphasized, “should allow people to flourish to use their God-given reason and talents to raise families and prosper.”

Bartulica’s remarks embodied the central purpose of MEGA 6th to restore the moral and cultural order of Western civilization. He expressed gratitude to his American partners, including Brian S. Brown of the International Organization for the Family (IOF), author Rod Dreher, and Stephen Rowe of the Leadership Institute, reaffirming the conference’s trans-Atlantic alliance.

His tone remained composed to the end no slogans, no dramatics, only quiet conviction. His message was unmistakable: conservatism must not only resist but rebuild; its task is not reaction, but renewal.

He closed with a declaration that distilled the moral essence of his speech: “Long live Europe. Long live Western civilization.”

The hall ended in thoughtful silence, filled not with applause but with understanding. Through Bartulica’s words and his partnership with Simion MEGA 6th rose beyond a political conference to become a continental forum for the defense of civilization itself.

Eric Bolling Ignites the Fire That Crosses Continents

Following Stephen Bartulica’s opening address, the evening program turned to Eric Bolling, an American television host and veteran conservative commentator, who is long associated with Turning Point USA and Fox News. Through a recorded keynote message, Bolling carried the momentum from Bartulica’s call for European renewal into a trans-Atlantic message of unity and resolve.

He began by thanking the organizers for bringing together conservatives from both sides of the Atlantic “to honor Charlie Kirk and to continue his fight.”He then turned to the late American activist at the center of the gathering’s theme. “Thank you, Turning Point, for your fight. That was Charlie Kirk’s fight.”

Bolling built his remarks around one conviction that Charlie Kirk’s movement was never merely American but universal. “The fire Charlie lit in America now burns everywhere across the free world,” he said. It was a line that defined the night: a vision of conservative resurgence that transcends national boundaries.

He illustrated that “fire” with two moments he had witnessed himself a concert by Croatian musician Marko Perković Thompson in Zagreb, known for its strong national sentiment, and mass demonstrations in London where citizens marched to defend free speech. “Croatia is awakening, and Europe is awakening,” Bolling said, framing liberty’s defense as a global effort.

He then turned to the moral and spiritual dimension of that awakening. “Charlie was a believer,” Bolling said. “He was courageous. Jesus said, ‘Take courage, it is I fear not.’” Faith and courage, he continued, were inseparable principles. “Charlie was called far-right because he was right in protecting the truth against those who were far wrong.”

That remark led to his broader warning: the struggle of the present age is not political but moral. “Our continent is under siege,” Bolling said. “Not by armies, but by bureaucrats and unelected elites who cancel elections, silence speech, and smear us for standing up for freedom, family, faith, and nations.”

Even as his words grew urgent, his tone remained composed. He defined the MEGA network as “an army of nations that refuse to die,” clarifying that its battle was cultural, not military a defense of sovereignty, moral order, and human identity. “Borders are not dangers,” he said. “They are promises to protect and to belong.”

This statement captured the essence of his argument: national identity and belonging are moral goods, not causes of division. “Identity is not hate,” Bolling said. “It is heritage.”

He concluded by thanking his Croatian hosts and the European participants who gathered to honor Charlie Kirk’s legacy. “Together with our Croatian friends,” he said, “we will prevail.” His final words, “May God bless you, and may God bless Europe” ended the address on the same note of faith and unity that defined the conference.

George Simion Leads the European Awakening and the Return of Courage

As host of the Make Europe Great Again (MEGA) 6th Conference, George-Nicolae Simion, Member of the Romanian Parliament, President of the AUR Party (Alliance for the Union of Romanians), and Vice-President of the ECR Party, opened with a conviction that has defined his political vision: that sovereignty, faith, and freedom must once again belong to the people.

Before delegates representing more than thirty nations, Simion framed Europe’s present crisis not as an economic downturn, but as a deeper failure of courage and truth. “Europe has not lost its wealth,” he said. “It has lost its courage.” It was a statement that distilled his entire message that the continent’s renewal depends not on markets or institutions, but on the moral strength of its citizens.

Simion warned that Brussels no longer speaks for the people, arguing that European elites have replaced representation with bureaucracy. He described the AUR movement as a civic effort to restore the voice of those left unheard, connecting its mission to that of Turning Point USA, founded by Charlie Kirk. Faith, family, and nation, he noted, are not uniquely American ideas but universal truths that form the bedrock of free societies.

He argued that Europe’s revival requires more than institutional reform. It demands a return to cultural confidence and national integrity. The European Union, Simion said, was founded as a framework for peace and cooperation, but has drifted toward a system that suppresses identity and silences dissent. To him, this generation struggles to reclaim the right of nations to define themselves.

Throughout his address, Simion spoke with composure and clarity. Rejecting portrayals of Europe’s conservative movements as extremist, he described them as “legitimate expressions of civic resistance” — a democratic correction against overreach. “We are not extremists,” he said. “We are patriots, fathers, mothers, believers, and workers who want a Europe that remembers what built it, not bureaucrats who rewrite what it means to be human.”

His message echoed the legacy of Charlie Kirk, to whom the conference was dedicated. Simion praised Kirk’s example of lived conviction a courage that acts, not only believes. For him, the true measure of conservatism was not preservation, but renewal rooted in truth.

Turning to Western European leaders, Simion warned against confusing unity with uniformity. He reminded them that cooperation does not require domination, and that Europe’s strength lies in its diversity bound by shared purpose. Genuine unity, he argued, protects differences rather than erasing them.

At the heart of his speech was the inseparable bond between truth and freedom. Simion argued that politics must defend both for when truth is controlled, freedom dies quietly. To him, freedom was not merely a right but a responsibility: the moral duty to speak truth even when it is costly.

In closing, Simion appealed directly to the younger generation. He urged them not to yield to fear or silence, but to rediscover the courage that once defined Europe. For him, the MEGA Conference was not a diplomatic gathering but a cultural front line a coalition of nations seeking to rebuild a Europe rooted in faith, family, and freedom.

He concluded by affirming that the turning point has already begun not only in America, but across a Europe awakening once more to its true identity.

Brian S. Brown and the Courage to Defend Truth

The final speaker at the opening ceremony of the Make Europe Great Again (MEGA) 6th Conference was Brian S. Brown, President of the World Congress of Families (WCF) and President of the International Organization for the Family (IOF), one of the world’s leading advocates for faith, family, and life.

Taking the stage after AUR Party Leader George Simion, Brown spoke not as a politician or a performer but as a witness: a man whose convictions had been tested in public battles. His tone was calm yet unwavering, the voice of someone who had endured the cost of truth.

He began with a question that silenced the room: “When did it become acceptable to attack those who stand for truth to call them fascists, to lie about them, to destroy them?”  It was not rhetoric but testimony, a reflection of lived experience.

Brown recalled 2007, when he moved to California to lead the campaign to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. “Everyone in Washington told me I was insane,” he said. “They said, ‘You’ll never win in California.’” Against every prediction, the campaign succeeded. Proposition 8 passed with 52.7 percent of the vote, the most significant social-policy victory in the state’s ballot history.

But victory brought reprisal. Brown described receiving death threats, envelopes filled with fake anthrax, and reports of donors being assaulted and fired. “A woman who gave a hundred dollars was attacked and lost her job,” he said. “She did nothing wrong.”

To Brown, these incidents revealed something deeper: that persecution had become normalized in Western society. He cited the public ousting of Mozilla founder Brendan Eich, who was forced to resign after supporting the same marriage initiative, as evidence of a new orthodoxy intolerant of dissent.

“When you call people fascists long enough,” Brown warned, “eventually someone will treat them as such.” The line between politics and morality, he argued, had vanished the moment biological reality itself became political. Saying that “a boy is a boy and a girl is a girl” was now considered an act of defiance. Brown recalled how, when he drove a bus bearing that message through European cities, it was attacked by 'Antifa' and police blamed him.

He invoked Charlie Kirk as the embodiment of courage in the face of fear. Kirk, he said, lived by simple, radical truths: believe in God, go to church, marry, and raise a family. When Kirk was killed, Brown’s voice faltered. “I saw my sons crying. My father-in-law, who has dementia, watched the news and wept. Why? Because Charlie refused to live or speak a lie.”

His conclusion carried moral clarity rather than sentiment. The greatest tribute to Kirk, he said, was not grief but imitation to live truthfully and fearlessly in an age that punishes both.

He urged participants to turn conviction into action. “Think about your time, your talent, your treasure,” he said. “Invest them in the cause of freedom. This is how we win.”

There were no slogans, no theatrics, only a steady insistence that truth, courage, and action remain the moral foundation of freedom.

His message was unmistakable: without the courage to defend truth, neither freedom, nor faith, nor family can endure.

H.E. Daniel del Valle Blanco Shapes a New Generation of Conservatism

The echoes of the opening ceremony had barely faded when the first discussion panel of the Make Europe Great Again (MEGA) 6th Conference began in Dubrovnik.

The session, titled “Charlie Kirk’s Impact a Turning Point for the Conservative Movement in the 21st Century,” was led by H.E. Daniel del Valle Blanco, a Spanish diplomat and jurist representing a new generation of conservatives rising within international institutions. His leadership reflected both continuity and change, a conservatism that seeks to translate conviction into institutional language and actionable structure.

A former Ambassador and Permanent Observer of the International Youth Organization (OIJ) to the United Nations in New York, del Valle now serves at the UN Headquarters in Geneva, focusing on youth, governance, anti-corruption, and international cooperation.

He began with a clarification of his own political stance: “People call me a globalist,” he said, “but I am not a globalist.” He continued, “Cooperation is not the same as globalism.” For del Valle, globalism did not refer to economic globalization but to an ideological movement that weakens national sovereignty and moral order. He argued that conservatives must engage with the world without surrendering their identity that collaboration must never come at the expense of conviction.

From the outset, del Valle approached the session not as a ceremonial tribute but as a structured reflection on the movement’s foundations. “The conservative movement,” he said, “stands at a crossroads. It can retreat into nostalgia or advance with renewed confidence.”

He described Charlie Kirk not merely as a political activist but as a generational reformer a leader who made conservatism modern, confident, and unapologetically moral. “Kirk represented a conservatism that spoke the language of a new generation without abandoning the truth that built it.”

Del Valle stressed that conviction alone is not enough; it must be accompanied by structure, discipline, and strategy. He called this principle Constructive Conservatism, the art of transforming belief into institutions and moral clarity into cultural confidence. He posed three questions that framed the debate for the entire session: “How does activism become an institution? How does conviction translate into culture? And how does a moral framework endure across generations?”

These questions shifted the conversation from emotion to method. While other speakers passionately invoked faith, family, and freedom, del Valle tied their insights into a coherent vision of renewal, one that emphasized both purpose and design.

His moderation lent the session intellectual rigor and composure. Rather than defending the past, he urged participants to shape the future to articulate timeless truths in ways that speak to a skeptical generation.

He closed with a line that distilled his message and the spirit of the MEGA movement: “This is not about longing for the past. It is about building the future with truth, with reason, and with faith.”

Under del Valle’s guidance, the first session of MEGA 6th moved beyond remembrance. It became a moment of design where the next generation of conservatives began shaping not resistance, but reconstruction.

Stephen Rowe and the Discipline of Victory

As the first discussion of the Make Europe Great Again (MEGA) 6th Conference unfolded, moderator Daniel del Valle Blanco guided a conversation under the theme “Charlie Kirk’s Impact: A Turning Point for the Conservative Movement in the 21st Century.”

Among the panelists, Stephen Rowe, Director of Digital Training at the Leadership Institute and one of the early members of Turning Point USA, offered a structural perspective on how conviction endures when organized with discipline and purpose.

Reflecting on the early days of Turning Point, Rowe recalled how Charlie Kirk had prepared his team for the long road ahead: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, and then you win.”

For Rowe, this was not a slogan but a structure that every genuine movement must walk before victory. He described how Turning Point grew from a small campus initiative into a national movement, emphasizing that its success was never spontaneous. It was built on repetition, discipline, and order a reminder that enduring movements depend on steady systems.

Rowe recalled that Charlie “didn’t wait for anyone to open the door he built ladders instead.” It was, he said, the perfect metaphor for the conservative ethic of initiative, service, and order. He stressed that enthusiasm alone cannot sustain a movement. True endurance, he argued, rests on the deliberate investment of time, talent, and commitment.

“Leadership is service, and service is structure,” he continued. “The strength of a conservative movement lies not in who leads the loudest but in who serves the longest with discipline, humility, and perseverance.”

“The measure of participation,” he added, “is not noise but endurance, the quiet, continuous work that sustains a cause when attention fades.”

Recalling the Prove Me Wrong debates that began on small campuses and later expanded internationally, Rowe noted that the movement’s strength lay not in its scale but in its applicability, its ability to train future generations to think, question, and lead.

He concluded that Charlie Kirk’s greatest legacy was not only his message but the mechanism that carried it forward. “Winning is not a moment; it’s a habit,” Rowe said.

He closed with one of Kirk’s favorite lines from Rocky Balboa: “It’s not about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done.”

For Rowe, this was more than cinematic inspiration it embodied the conservative ethic that freedom survives through endurance, service, and order. His remarks were measured and precise, mirroring the principles he described. Victory, he implied, is not born of outrage but of order. The future of conservatism, he concluded, will belong to those who build, serve, and sustain with discipline and purpose.

Jim Ferguson Builds the Structure of Resistance

As the first discussion of the Make Europe Great Again (MEGA) 6th Conference continued, Scottish journalist Jim Ferguson, founder of Freedom Train International, delivered disciplined analyses of the evening. A former Brexit Party parliamentary candidate, Ferguson has long defended British sovereignty and democratic accountability while building a transnational civic movement for freedom.

As the second panelist, Ferguson began by expressing gratitude to George Simion and Stephen Bartulica, the hosts of the MEGA 6th Conference, calling them “brothers in a shared awakening.” He linked Europe’s conservative resurgence to its transatlantic counterpart, describing the present moment as part of what he called the Great Conservative Revolution, not a backlash driven by anger, but a reconstruction of order and conviction long suppressed by progressive orthodoxy.

Ferguson’s argument was disciplined and strategic. He said Charlie Kirk was not merely an activist who inspired people, but an architect who reorganized the conservative movement itself, creating what he called a moment when “a movement doesn’t just add followers but rewrites the playbook.”

He explained that Kirk’s transformation of the movement rested on three foundations. First, he changed the battlefield: conservatives had long regarded universities and the media as lost ground, yet Kirk re-entered those spaces and turned them into ideological front lines. Second, he built the infrastructure, transforming enthusiasm into organization, emotion into structure, and belief into systems, professionalizing what others had merely romanticized. Third, he mastered the medium, treating technology not as a threat but as a tool of persuasion, proving that influence today depends less on scale than on precision.

Ferguson argued that movements waiting for permission become subordinate to those who act; Kirk, he said, “didn’t wait for a key he built a door.” Resistance, for him, was not rebellion but the courage to preserve conviction. The true turning point in history, he continued, is not a date on a calendar but a decision in the heart the moment when citizens rise, when students refuse silence, and when patriots reject apology for their faith and their nation.

He portrayed Kirk’s leadership as one of expansion, not domination a model that multiplied leaders rather than followers. The future of conservatism, Ferguson said, lies not in increasing its audience but in raising its standard of leadership. In Ferguson’s view, Kirk’s legacy was not a moral lesson but a fortress of conviction a living foundation that armed a generation with the courage to defend truth in an age of fear.

He closed with a warning and a call to renewal. The revival of conservatism, he said, will not come through noise or populism, but through moral, intellectual, and institutional reconstruction and its endurance will depend not on comfort, but on the accumulation of courage.

Laura Gherasim Upholds the Moral Responsibility of Courage

During the first discussion panel of the Make Europe Great Again (MEGA) 6th Conference, titled “Charlie Kirk’s Impact: A Turning Point for the Conservative Movement in the 21st Century,” Laura Gherasim, Member of the Romanian Parliament from the AUR Party (Alliance for the Union of Romanians), brought a practical and moral dimension to the discussion. With over two decades of experience in the construction industry, she spoke not from ideology but from lived experience — framing conservatism as an ethic of responsibility and courage.

She began by expressing gratitude to the Croatian hosts and participants who had traveled from across Europe. “We have all made sacrifices to be here,” she said, “but what matters most is to take our experiences back to our politics, our families, and our businesses.” Her tone was warm yet firm, underscoring that the value of the MEGA movement lay not in symbolism, but in execution.

Turning toward her political mentor, she thanked George Simion, President of the AUR Party and host of the MEGA 6th, “for allowing a new generation of politicians to have a strong voice to fight and to have the courage to speak the truth.” Her words reflected the intergenerational character of the movement: leadership expressed through service, not display.

“Charlie Kirk showed us that true leadership means solving problems, not just describing them,” she said. “Europe today needs leaders armed with better words, better vision, and better action.” It was both a call for renewal and a quiet rebuke to complacency.

Gherasim warned that although Europe appears more united than ever, it is “in truth more divided than ever.” If genuine change does not occur, she cautioned, “we will have a resigned Europe.” Invoking Kirk’s principle that one must be “slow in anger and careful with words,” she reminded the audience that words shape destinies, especially for children. “If our schools silence children, if our universities kill critical thinking,” she said, “we will raise a generation that fears truth rather than fights for it.”

As Chair of the Committee for the Investigation of Abuses, Corruption, and Petitions in the Romanian Parliament, she connected political corruption to moral erosion. “I can assure you,” she said, “that as a mother and as a parliamentarian, I will fight with better words and with better laws.”

Rejecting the claim that defending national values equates to extremism, Gherasim declared, “I will not be ashamed of my culture. I will not be ashamed to defend the nationalists in Romania.” Her tone was not one of confrontation but of civic integrity patriotism rooted in duty rather than division.

Before concluding, she reflected on a pre-panel discussion with fellow participants, noting that it was “time for biopolitics politics with cure.” She described it as governance aimed not at managing power, but at restoring moral and social health. For Gherasim, Charlie Kirk’s legacy embodied that same principle: that courage and moral clarity are not rhetorical values, but the foundation of any true renewal.

Her closing words encapsulated both warning and hope: “Maybe it is time for a turning point for Europe.” In that sentence, Gherasim expressed what the entire panel sought to affirm that the future of conservatism depends not on ideology alone, but on the moral responsibility of courage.

Ryszard Czarnecki Calls for Unity Through Struggle

As the final speaker of the first discussion panel, “Charlie Kirk’s Impact: A Turning Point for the Conservative Movement in the 21st Century,” Ryszard Czarnecki, senior Polish politician and former Vice President of the European Parliament, spoke with the composure of experience and the weight of history. A longtime member of Poland’s Law and Justice Party, he anchored his remarks on one conviction: the legacy of Charlie Kirk belongs not only to America but also to the nations of Europe that still defend faith, family, and freedom.

He began by thanking the conference hosts, Stephen Bartulica of Croatia and George Simion of Romania. He called the MEGA 6th “a meaningful gathering at a decisive moment for both America and Europe.” Czarnecki described this period as “a time of great conservative revolution,” when values once dismissed in Western discourse are returning as legitimate foundations of governance.

He explained that Poland remains one of the few European nations where faith and family continue to define public life.EU data, he noted, places Poland among the leading European countries in attachment to family values. This, he said, is why Charlie Kirk’s message resonated so profoundly with Polish society, it spoke the same moral language of faith, freedom, and courage that has long shaped Poland’s national spirit.

Czarnecki recalled a recent incident in the Polish Parliament where opposition deputies disrupted a moment of silence for Kirk. He described it as “a symptom of hatred stronger than death,” reflecting the rise of left-wing intolerance spreading across the Western world. Yet even among liberal voices in Poland, he noted, Kirk’s sincerity was recognized. Quoting one journalist, he said, “Charlie Kirk will have the same impact on America as Martin Luther King Jr. had, honest, sincere, and without hatred.”

He went on to argue that whether Kirk’s death becomes a true turning point “depends on us on our courage, determination, unity, and political wisdom.” The threats to freedom, he warned, are no longer merely ideological but institutional, bureaucratic, unelected elites, and technocratic systems that erode national sovereignty in the name of progress.

Citing Polish playwright Karol Hubert Rostworowski, he reminded the audience that “life itself is struggle.” He then recalled former U.S. President Donald Trump’s defiant words after surviving an assassination attempt: “Fight! Fight! Fight!” For Czarnecki, this was not a call to aggression but a call to perseverance, a reminder that freedom must be protected through courage and unity.

He concluded, “Charlie Kirk’s legacy will endure only if we choose action over retreat. The enemies of freedom are already organized; so must we be.” His final words tied Poland’s historical resilience to America’s conservative awakening, affirming that the defense of faith, truth, and nation is a shared duty not bound by geography, but united in purpose.

Robert Roos Defends Free Speech as Europe’s Moral Duty

The second day of the MEGA 6th Conference opened with the discussion panel “Free Speech or Regulated Speech?” Robert Roos, former Member of the European Parliament and Dutch entrepreneur, was the first to take the stage. His address placed the issue of free expression not within legal boundaries but within the moral foundations of democracy itself.

He began by acknowledging Stephen Bartulica, George Simion, and Brian Brown figures who, he noted, had made the gathering possible through conviction and persistence. To Roos, MEGA was not merely a political event but a living network: a conservative alliance built through shared conviction and personal trust across borders.

He traced how the MEGA initiative had evolved “from a little snowball” into a continental movement grounded in truth, freedom, and sovereignty. The United States, he observed, had already demonstrated that civic courage could become political renewal; Europe, he argued, must now take up that task.

Turning to the central theme, Roos warned that the right to express unpopular opinions is increasingly constrained by law, media pressure, and the politics of emotion. In modern Europe, he argued, personal offense has gained the force of law silencing debate, damaging reputations, and normalizing censorship. Free speech, he reminded, exists to protect the words society least wants to hear.

He stressed that the struggle to defend expression is not merely legal but moral, criticizing a growing tendency to replace reason with accusation through labels such as “racist” or “denier.” Such habits, he said, transform citizens into suspects and weaken the civic trust that sustains democracy.

Citing the European Union’s Digital Services Act, Roos warned that it empowers unelected authorities to regulate thought under the pretext of combating disinformation, creating a system where truth itself becomes bureaucratically managed. The essential question, he insisted, is not what is true but who decides and who is silenced.

He concluded that democracy does not collapse from loud disagreement, but from the quiet resignation of those who know better. Citing Charlie Kirk as an example, Roos called on participants to speak without fear and to view free speech not only as a right but also as a civic obligation. His remarks, delivered without drama yet with moral clarity, set a disciplined tone for the discussions that followed one defined by courage, restraint, and purpose.

Rod Dreher Warns That Conformity Kills Freedom

The panel on “Free Speech or Regulated Speech?” continued with the first address by American writer and cultural critic Rod Dreher, Senior Fellow at the Danube Institute in Budapest and columnist for The European Conservative. He is best known for his books The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation and Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents. Over the past four years living in Europe, Dreher has observed how Western societies test the limits of conscience and freedom.

Opening his remarks, Dreher reminded the audience that unity is not sentiment but survival, recalling the warning from America’s founding generation: “We must stick together, or we will all hang separately. ”The lesson, he said, still applies to those defending faith and freedom today.

Having lived outside the United States, Dreher said he had come to cherish the First Amendment the constitutional clause declaring that “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.” Yet he warned that even where law protects speech, social conformity can slowly suffocate freedom.

Around 2015, Dreher began hearing from former citizens of Soviet-bloc nations who told him that the same ideological coercion they had fled was reappearing in the West this time without gulags or secret police. What they sensed, he said, was the rise of soft totalitarianism, a moral intimidation emerging within liberal democracy itself.

Unlike the hard tyranny of the state, this new form arises when citizens internalize fear and silence themselves. The pressure, he explained, is moral rather than legal a discipline of the mind imposed by social expectation instead of decree.

That realization inspired Live Not by Lies, named after Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s final essay before exile. While researching the book, Dreher interviewed Christians across the former Soviet bloc who had resisted communism and asked what lessons they could offer to the modern West. He dedicated the work to Father Tomislav Kolaković, a Croatian Jesuit who, in 1943, organized underground faith networks under Nazi and Soviet occupation, denounced as alarmist in his time, yet vindicated by history.

Dreher drew parallels between Kolaković and Charlie Kirk: both men believed the next generation was not lost and built structures of hope through faith and conviction. From them, he derived two principles: trust in the young and the moral necessity of suffering. Christian dissidents, he recalled, taught him that “if you are not willing to suffer for what you believe, your faith means nothing.” Charlie Kirk lived that truth: entering hostile campuses, speaking truth with charity, and enduring hatred without retreat.

Citing Solzhenitsyn and Václav Havel, Dreher emphasized that the courage of a single person willing to suffer for truth can shake an entire system built on lies. In the weeks following Kirk’s death, he noted, countless young people had “discovered courage they didn’t know they had.”

He concluded by urging Europe’s conservatives to overcome division. The enemies seeking to destroy faith, family, and freedom, he said, are far greater than the differences among them. If they do not stand together now, they will fall separately. His address blended moral clarity and quiet force a reminder that freedom does not die by law but by surrender, and that courage is its final defense.

Fernand Kartheiser Dissects Europe’s Rule by Fear

Where Rod Dreher spoke of freedom of conscience and the courage to resist self-censorship, Fernand Kartheiser shifted the discussion to structure from the inner struggle of freedom to the institutional systems that now suppress it. If Dreher warned about the censorship of the mind, Kartheiser examined how modern states codify fear as a tool of governance.

A veteran politician from Luxembourg’s Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR), Kartheiser served as a diplomat and national parliamentarian before becoming, in 2024, the first ADR member ever elected to the European Parliament. In 2025, he was expelled from the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Group after visiting Russia, an episode he described as “proof of the new intolerance that European democracy no longer hides.”

Speaking in Dubrovnik, Kartheiser offered a precise dissection of the Western crisis through the lens of free expression. In his view, the European Union is drifting toward authoritarianism not through military force or coups, but through moral fatigue and civic fear a quiet corrosion that undermines the will to disagree. “Repression today,” he argued, “no longer relies on violence. It comes disguised as consensus. When disagreement itself becomes taboo, freedom has already disappeared.”

He traced the turning point to 2015, when Germany unilaterally opened its borders during the migration crisis. The breach of EU law passed without consequence, a moment that, in his reading, normalized irresponsibility. Critics of the policy were branded extremists, and the media gradually abandoned its role as a watchdog to become the voice of power. Even the United Nations, he noted, had encouraged journalists to report on migration only “in positive terms.”

Kartheiser argued that the same formula reappeared during the COVID-19 pandemic. Governments that failed to control chaos began to rule through fear, suspending fundamental rights and restoring them only to the obedient. Science, once a method for discovering truth, was turned into an authority that suppresses doubt.

That logic, he warned, has now migrated into climate policy. Questioning mankind’s influence on the planet is treated as heresy, and those who ask uncomfortable questions are denounced as “enemies of humanity.” Across migration, pandemic, and climate crises, he saw a single pattern: power expands by exploiting fear.

Quoting EU founder Jean Monnet, Kartheiser recalled that “Europe will be built through crises,” adding that Brussels has perfected this principle as a strategy of power concentration without consent. Between 2015 and 2020, he said, Europe experienced “a decade of deliberate weakening of democracy.” Laws such as the Digital Services Act (DSA), introduced as safeguards against disinformation, now function as instruments of control. “When power defines what is true,” he warned, “freedom ends.”

He further cautioned that new mechanisms of surveillance of encrypted communications, financial restrictions, and the criminalization of so-called “hate speech” represent a new censorship system cloaked in moral language. “Hate,” he said, “is a feeling. It cannot, and must not, be legislated.”

Kartheiser compared this atmosphere to McCarthyism during the Cold War. Then, communist sympathizers were blacklisted from Hollywood; today, Russian artists are banned from the European stage. “The names have changed,” he observed, “but the logic remains the same.”

He concluded by returning to the essence of freedom. Freedom, he said, is not preserved by declarations but by citizens with the courage to bear its cost. To equip the next generation with the tools to defend truth through logic and reason, he proposed establishing a “Charlie Kirk Academy for Debate.” His message ended where it began with resolve. “Freedom is not an inheritance,” Kartheiser said. “It is a task each generation must prove again through courage.”

Jay Patel Calls for a Transatlantic Alliance to Defend Freedom

At the MEGA 6 Conference’s second-day discussion, “Free Speech or Regulated Speech?”, Jay Patel, President of the Transatlantic Sovereignty Institute, defined the crisis of liberty not as a cultural disagreement but as a geopolitical struggle. He argued that the erosion of free expression in the West is not coincidental but part of an organized process driven by unelected elites and transnational ideological networks.

Patel began by outlining the mission of his newly established institute, which seeks to strengthen transatlantic conservative cooperation based on national sovereignty. Its goal, he explained, is to offer “an alternative to both liberal globalism and a China-led order,” serving as an effort to reaffirm the moral and political independence of free nations.

He opened his remarks by expressing gratitude to the MEGA 6th Conference organizers, Stephen Bartulica and George Simion, for gathering “a coalition of patriots in one of Europe’s most historic nations.” Croatia, he said, embodies “a conservative and patriotic tradition strong enough to inspire a new sovereignist movement, much like Romania’s.”

Patel then expanded the discussion of free speech into a broader struggle over information and sovereignty. He noted that global left-wing and Soros-funded networks coordinate across borders, sharing resources, narratives, and protest strategies, and that what appears to be local unrest often bears transnational fingerprints.

Patel shared his experience as an election observer in Georgia (the Republic of Georgia).When the conservative ruling party won, violent riots erupted, and many demonstrators carried English-language signs bearing slogans from Western activist groups. He described this as “intervention in the name of democracy,” a form of ideological export and political interference orchestrated through Western funding and networks.

He stressed that conservatives must respond with the same level of coordination and discipline. Acting as isolated defenders of sovereignty, he warned, is no longer sustainable. Instead, he called for a transatlantic alliance that treats sovereignty not only as a political principle but as a moral value shared among free nations.

Patel also reflected on his collaboration with Charlie Kirk in the early 2010s,describing him as a model of disciplined conviction who viewed work as duty and faith in action. Even after focusing primarily on the United States, Kirk continued to monitor events in Europe in Poland, Hungary, and Brussels never losing sight of the continent’s conservative future. For Patel, this vigilance underscored a central truth: the defense of freedom cannot stop at borders but must unite nations willing to stand for truth.

In conclusion, Patel urged conservatives to move from rhetoric to structure. “The left organizes daily,” he said, “they fund, they train, they coordinate.” If conservatives hope to preserve their values, they must adopt the same strategic discipline.

Patel’s address combined the clarity of a strategist with the conviction of a believer. For him, the defense of free speech was not a question of opinion, but a moral calling a duty to safeguard the foundations of civilization. He closed with a reminder that Charlie Kirk’s legacy is not merely a message but a model of freedom built upon courage, unity, and faith.

Silvia Uscov Reclaims Freedom in the Age of Algorithmic Censorship

The final speaker of the “Free Speech or Regulated Speech?” session, Silvia Uscov, a Romanian lawyer and policy expert, represented the voice of a generation confronting the new architecture of censorship. With over a decade of experience in law, human rights, and cyber policy, and holding certifications in AI and cybersecurity, Uscov has built her career at the intersection of technology and justice. A senior fellow with a U.S.-based organization that trains NATO personnel, she has also developed cybersecurity and AI regulatory training programs, and led the legal team for George Simion’s 2025 presidential campaign. Since mid-2025, she has worked to promote constitutional order and judicial independence in Romania, a country, she remarked, where democracy “survives through vigilance, not habit.”

In Dubrovnik, Uscov reframed the debate on free speech by examining its technological transformation. She argued that today’s censorship no longer relies on government edicts, but on algorithms quietly embedded in digital architecture. “The new censors,” she said, “are systems that regulate thought through design.”

She pointed out that major tech platforms such as YouTube and TikTok have effectively become unofficial legislators of culture, embedding ideological choices directly into code. “When Chinese TikTok promotes educational videos to teenagers, while the Western version prioritizes entertainment,” she explained, “it reflects not market demand, but moral engineering.” To her, this represents not a simple bias but a structural system of control, where software engineers, not parliaments, determine the boundaries of public discourse.

Her warning carried moral clarity: invisible censorship is more dangerous than visible repression. “When a government bans a book, citizens know it,” she said. “But when an algorithm erases your voice, no one realizes.” Censorship, she concluded, has become “a design choice rather than a legal order.”

Uscov also addressed what she called temporal asymmetry, the imbalance between the immediate harms of speech and the long-term benefits of freedom. “Harassment, disinformation, and digital violence cause instant damage,” she noted. “But the truth that advances civilization takes years, sometimes decades, to emerge.” Regulation, she argued, often reflects the politics of impatience, trading the enlightenment of the future for the comfort of the present.

Her conclusion was characteristically conservative: resilience, not restriction, must define freedom. When societies suppress discomfort, she warned, they invite extremism. “In pre-revolutionary France, forbidden grievances exploded in violence,” she said. “Online, the same dynamic repeats silence breeds radicalism.”

Finally, Uscov introduced the concept of context collapse, the erasure of social boundaries in digital communication. Online, every remark exists without setting; every joke risks misinterpretation; every comment becomes political by default. “The design of a platform,” she explained, “is itself an act of moral architecture.” Twitter’s 140-character limit turned dialogue into shouting; Instagram’s image culture elevated status and aesthetics; Reddit’s subforums built closed digital tribes. Each structural choice, she argued, shapes human behavior as decisively as a courtroom or a cathedral.

She ended with quiet conviction: “The question isn’t whether speech should be free or regulated it’s what kind of conversation we are building.” And with a thoughtful pause, she added, “We often defend the right to speak, but true freedom also requires the right to be heard. A democracy that stops listening eventually stops living.”

Panel Report Diagnoses Democratic Risks in the Debate on Free Speech

After all four speakers had finished, moderator Robert Roos guided the discussion into open exchange. Referring to Charlie Kirk’s principle “Dialogue prevents violence,” he began with a stark question to the first speaker: “Are we approaching a point in the West where the failure of dialogue could lead to civil unrest?”

Rod Dreher responded without hesitation. Citing Professor David Betz of King’s College London, he warned that the West was edging toward what Betz calls a “dirty war,” sporadic bombings and assassinations like those of Northern Ireland or Lebanon. The cause, Dreher explained, lies in asymmetrical multiculturalism: a system where radical Islamists can say almost anything publicly, while ordinary Britons risk arrest for criticizing gender or religion. When citizens lose both voice and trust, he said, fear festers into hatred. “Charlie Kirk was right when free speech dies, violence fills the void.”

Roos then turned to Fernand Kartheiser, asking, “Europe’s Digital Services Act claims to defend democracy but does it, in fact, restrict it?” Kartheiser replied that the DSA was “one link in a long chain of instruments designed not to protect, but to control.” Freedom, he said, is shrinking as economies weaken and societies fragment, creating “the seedbed of unrest.” He cited a recent vote giving the European Commission unilateral power to impose visa restrictions on citizens of countries that criminalize abortion, limit LGBT rights, or defy EU sanctions “ideological coercion disguised as administration.” “The DSA is only the visible tentacle,” he added. “The EU itself has become an octopus of ideological control.” He urged a conservative return to first principles equality before the law, freedom of expression, and separation of powers.

The moderator next asked Dreher to elaborate: “How did we move from fighting for speech to fearing it?” Dreher reflected that “in the 1960s through the 1980s, students fought university authorities for free speech. Today, many students demand protection from speech.” This reversal, he said, represents soft totalitarianism the voluntary surrender of liberty for safety. “We no longer live in 1984,” he concluded. “We live in Brave New World.”

Jay Patel was then asked, “What can Europe learn from America’s First Amendment and what should it avoid?” Patel contrasted the U.S. constitutional model, which enshrines speech as a right, with Europe’s patchwork of legal exceptions. Yet even in America, he warned, freedom is undermined both by corporate censorship and street intimidation. “Europe should learn from America’s founding principles,” he said, “but the U.S. itself is no longer a perfect example.” Patel also raised the issue of selective media silence the unwillingness to report left-wing violence or Antifa intimidation. He cited a case in which an Antifa-linked member of the European Parliament retained immunity thanks to votes not only from the Left but also from Germany’s CDU (Christian Democratic Union). “Europe’s establishment,” he said, “is complicit through silence.”

Finally, Roos turned to Silvia Uscov, asking, “Romania’s recent elections drew international concern was free speech truly at risk?” Uscov confirmed that in December 2024, elections were canceled, and in May 2025, left-wing forces won after branding George Simion as “pro-Russian.” She explained how, during the 45-day campaign, coordinated mass reporting on Facebook silenced conservative voices, while DSA and political advertising rules were used to remove pro-Simion content. Courts, she said, “rejected appeals because judges themselves did not understand the technical mechanisms of censorship.” Uscov cited Pavel Durov’s claim that French authorities had asked for Romanian conservative accounts to be suppressed. “Propaganda,” she concluded, “has migrated from television to social media where control is constant and invisible.”

To close, Roos echoed the spirit of Kirk’s legacy: “Do not answer hatred with hatred. Violence can never be our tool. Liberty demands courage and silence is its death.” The hall responded with long applause.

Iva Kraljević Opens the MEGA 6th Conference Debate on Europe’s Identity and Moral Foundations

The third discussion of the MEGA 6th Conference opened under the moderation of Iva Kraljević, a Croatian podcaster widely recognized for her work with Catholic media and faith-based communication platforms. Unlike the previous panels that examined democracy through political or legal frameworks, this session turned toward the cultural core of Europe the moral and spiritual foundations that define its civilization.

Under the title “What Defines Europe? Cultural Heritage, Traditions, and the Role of Family,” Kraljević underscored that Europe’s crisis is not territorial but civilizational. She posed a sharper question to the audience and the panelists alike: in an age of accelerating cultural change, what does Europe still choose to defend?

Her opening remarks redirected the conversation away from the mechanisms of governance, and toward the enduring question of meaning: what binds Europe beyond treaties, markets, or institutions. She called faith, family, and freedom the moral pillars that once united nations now divided by ideology. The tone she set was reflective yet urgent, inviting a sober examination of Europe’s spiritual coherence.

The panel brought together leading conservative thinkers from across the continent to examine Europe’s moral inheritance and the choices it must make to preserve it. Kraljević closed her introduction by thanking the Croatian audience for what she described as “their quiet courage in keeping faith alive,” before giving the floor to the first speaker.

Cristina Dascălu Calls Europe to Reclaim Faith, Family, and Meaning

The first speaker of the session “What Defines Europe? Cultural Heritage, Traditions, and the Role of Family” was Cristina Dascălu, member of the Romanian Parliament representing the AUR Party, Vice President of the Education Committee, and member of the External Affairs Committee.

From the outset, Dascălu redirected the discussion from institutional questions to civilizational foundations. Her tone was calm but resolute, defining Europe not as a political project or a geographic concept, but as a moral order built on faith, reason, and law. “Europe,” she said, “was born on three hills: the Acropolis, the Capitoline, and Golgotha.” Athens gave Europe its intellect, Rome its discipline, and Jerusalem its soul.

For Dascălu, this trinity was not a metaphor but the anatomy of Europe itself. Without Athens, reason becomes superstition; without Rome, order turns to chaos; without Jerusalem, freedom decays into nihilism. “A Europe that forgets God,” she warned, “forgets man as well.” What follows, she said, is a civilization that “builds everything but believes in nothing,” replacing duty with desire and dignity with pleasure.

Her analysis traced Europe’s moral decline to the erosion of faith rather than to any political crisis. Secularism, she argued, did not liberate man but unmoored him from meaning. Cathedrals have become museums, faith has turned into a private pastime, and truth has been reduced to opinion. In that silence, ideology has rushed to fill the void once occupied by belief.

Drawing from Romania’s own experience, Dascălu described her country as a living synthesis of Europe’s soul a Latin language shaped by Rome, a Byzantine faith rooted in the East, and a civic order sustained by both. “Romania,” she said, “is Europe in miniature a nation that proves diversity need not mean division when bound by shared moral inheritance.”

She then turned to the family, which she called “Europe’s oldest revolutionary institution.” Empires have risen and fallen, she said, but the family endured the first school, the first church, and the first social contract. It is in the home that children learn sacrifice, love, and moral order. Yet modern Europe has reduced the family to a lifestyle option and motherhood to a burden. The resulting demographic winter, Dascălu warned, is not an economic phenomenon but a spiritual one: “A civilization that ceases to believe in its future ceases to deserve one.”

Rejecting the notion that migration can solve Europe’s crisis, she emphasized that a civilization is not a labor market but a covenant between generations. Integration, she said, must be rooted in shared identity, not ideological relativism. She invoked Romanitas the Roman ideal of welcoming foreigners who adopted its laws, customs, and values and contrasted it with today’s borderless individualism that has confused hospitality with surrender. “Hospitality,” she reminded the audience, “presupposes both a host and a home.”

Her conclusion was not nostalgic but reformative. “Our task,” she said, “is not to rebuild empires but to rebuild meaning beginning with faith and family.” Only through moral renewal could Europe reclaim the confidence that once shaped its art, its institutions, and its humanity.

Dascălu’s address captured the essence of the MEGA 6th Conference: that the defense of freedom begins not in parliaments or parties but in the conscience of believers and the courage of families where civilization itself is both born and preserved.

Paolo Inselvini Calls Europe to Defend God, Fatherland, and Family

Following Cristina Dascălu’s appeal for Europe to restore faith and family, Paolo Inselvini, a Member of the European Parliament representing Fratelli d’Italia and the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Group, took the stage as the second speaker of the session “What Defines Europe? Cultural Heritage, Traditions, and the Role of Family.”

At just thirty-one, Inselvini is one of the youngest members of the European Parliament yet his voice carried the moral gravity of an older generation. Speaking with conviction rather than calculation, he declared a message that set the tone for the debate: “Europe cannot exist without God, Fatherland, and Family.”

He began by expressing gratitude to the MEGA 6th Conference organizers and to the Croatian hosts, describing Dubrovnik as “a living monument to Europe’s greatness,” a city built by faith, loyalty, and sacrifice. From that symbolic ground, Inselvini launched a reflection on Europe’s civilizational decline not in material power, but in meaning.

He defined the structural foundations of Europe as a moral architecture built upon three pillars: God, the source of truth and human dignity; the Fatherland, the bond of duty and belonging; and the Family, the first community of virtue, sacrifice, and continuity. These, he stressed, were not slogans for political rallies but organizing principles that sustained Europe’s moral order for centuries.

Today, he warned, all three are crumbling. Faith has been replaced by relativism, the Fatherland reduced to administrative geography, and the Family dismissed as a private lifestyle choice. “What collapses first,” he observed, “is not the state, but the soul.”

Drawing on his experience as Co-Chair of the European Parliament’s Intergroup on Demography, Inselvini turned to the continent’s population crisis. The problem, he argued, is not economic but spiritual a loss of will to live and to pass life on. “No civilization can survive if it forgets to reproduce itself,” he said. “A civilization dies not when it is defeated, but when it ceases to believe that life is worth passing on.” He called for a cultural and political renewal that restores marriage, motherhood, and fatherhood as acts of continuity, not burdens of sacrifice. “A child must never be a luxury good.”

From there, Inselvini addressed the ideological movements undermining Europe’s identity. Secularism, materialism, and gender ideology, he said, have abolished the very distinctions that make community possible. Europe’s crisis, he argued, is not a violent revolution but a slow erosion “a soft suicide of civilization” carried out in the name of comfort and progress.

To defend family and identity, he insisted, is not nostalgia but rebellion a moral act of resistance. “To fight for God, Fatherland, and Family,” he said, “is to fight for freedom itself.”

He invoked the legacy of Charlie Kirk as an example of conviction rooted in faith and courage. “Kirk did not seek power,” Inselvini said. “He sought truth and that is why his voice still speaks to Europe. ”Politics, he continued, must never be treated as a career or a passion, but as a mission. “If politics is a job, it can be sold. If it is a passion, it can fade. But as a mission, it requires sacrifice.”

His conclusion came with the quiet dignity of someone speaking not from ambition, but from belief. Quoting J.R.R. Tolkien, he reminded the audience that the defense of civilization rests not on conquest but conscience: “I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.”

He ended by affirming that faith gives direction to the Fatherland, and the Family sustains freedom. When these are lost, Europe ceases to exist as a civilization. His message was not a call to nostalgia but a clear demand for renewal a reminder that Europe’s survival depends on recovering the moral conviction that once built it.

António Tânger Corrêa Urges Europe to Rebuild Through Duty and Courage

After Paolo Inselvini called for Europe to restore its moral pillars—God, Fatherland, and Family António Tânger Corrêa, Vice President of Portugal’s Chega Party, Member of the European Parliament, and Vice Chairman of Patriots for Europe, took the floor. A former diplomat with more than four decades of service, Corrêa spoke not as a professional politician but as a man shaped by history and experience.

He opened with a reflection from his years in the Balkans. During the Bosnian War, he said, he had seen the real Europe people who, even in devastation, preserved faith and dignity. That experience, he recalled, convinced him that Europe’s identity does not come from treaties or bureaucracies but from the spiritual strength of its citizens. “The sea, the sun, the people,” he remembered of Croatia, “they gave me solace when I witnessed war. That was Europe as it truly is.”

Corrêa contrasted that moral Europe with what he sees today: a continent adrift in confusion. Since the upheavals of 1968, he argued, a “leftist and woke wave” has swept across the West, turning patriotism into guilt and erasing the values that once anchored society. “For decades we lived under that tide,” he said. “But now the wave has hit a wall and is beginning to come back.”

He illustrated that point with the rapid rise of Chega, the conservative movement he helped build after Portugal’s Christian Democratic Party collapsed. “Six years ago, we had one member of parliament,” he said. “Then twelve, then fifty, and today sixty—making us the second largest party in Portugal.” What explains this, he asked? “Because we believe what we say. We believe in God, in the Fatherland, in Family, and in Work.” The crowd responded with applause, and Corrêa pressed the message further: “The past is the basis of our present, and the rule for our future. We are an old country with a young soul.”

Corrêa identified moral fatigue, not economics, as the root of Europe’s crisis. “People speak of rights,” he said, “but they forget responsibility. They speak of freedom but abandon discipline. They speak of progress but have no direction.” He rejected the idea that Western decline is inevitable. “Look around Europe,” he said. “We are winning in Portugal, in Austria, in the Netherlands. Even in Germany and France, the tide is changing.”

The core of his speech centered on four words that he called the foundations of renewal: Faith, Fatherland, Family, and Work. These were not, he stressed, slogans of nostalgia but organizing principles of civilization. Faith guides moral direction. The Fatherland binds citizens to a common duty. The Family passes on love, language, and virtue. Work gives dignity and purpose. When these collapse, he warned, “we stop believing that life is worth living.”

He then turned to the younger generation. “If only citizens under 35 could vote in Portugal,” he said, “Chega would have an absolute majority.” This, for him, was proof that Europe’s youth are not lost but waiting for conviction. “They are not looking for theories,” he said. “They are looking for courage.”

As his speech gathered rhythm, Corrêa’s voice hardened. “Work, work, work. Fight, fight, fight,” he declared, echoing the cadence of resolve rather than anger. “Always be present. Never just talk. People, like dogs, can sense fear. Do not fear because when you stand firm, they will fear you.”

He ended as he began without embellishment, without rhetoric, only resolve. “Europe,” he said, “will not be rebuilt by those who apologize for its past, but by those who live its values without shame.” His message was unmistakable: Europe’s future begins not in words, but in fearless action and conviction.

Dimos Thanasoulas Calls Europe to Defend the Living Heart of Civilization

Following António Tânger Corrêa’s remarks diagnosing Europe’s “moral fatigue” and calling for the restoration of faith, fatherland, family, and work, the discussion turned toward the roots of civilization itself. Dimos Thanasoulas, press spokesman for Greece’s Niki Party and a Supreme Court lawyer known for defending constitutional rights, delivered the final address of the session. A father of four, he has successfully challenged government measures that enforce digital IDs, remove Christian education from schools, and mandate COVID-19 vaccinations.

Thanasoulas opened with a reminder that Dubrovnik traces part of its ancient heritage to 'Epidaurum' a city founded by Greek settlers in the 6th century BC. That origin, he said, is more than a matter of archaeology; it is symbolic of Europe’s enduring moral geography. The thread of faith that once tied the Adriatic to Athens still defines the spirit of the continent.

From there, he carried the audience back to 480 BC, to the Battle of Salamis. After the sacrifice of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae, the Greeks fought from their wooden ships to defend their homeland against a massive Persian invasion. Quoting Aeschylus’s The Persians, Thanasoulas recited the ancient hymn sung before battle: “Sons of the Greeks, advance! Free your homeland, your children, your wives, the temples of your fathers’ gods, and the tombs of your ancestors. Now is the struggle of all.”

He called this the first written record of Europe’s moral trinity: faith, homeland, and family values, he said, “worth dying for, because without them, there is no reason to live.” Faith provides a moral framework that allows coexistence and heals the human soul by connecting man to the divine. Patriotism, rightly understood, safeguards diversity by preserving the distinct nations that form Europe’s mosaic. And the family, “the primary cell of a nation,” transmits love, virtue, and belief the essential nutrients that keep civilization alive.

Yet Thanasoulas was careful to insist that these traditions are not static relics. “True tradition,” he said, “is the sum of all tried and tested innovations in human society.” To defend tradition, therefore, is not an act of nostalgia but of renewal, an affirmation that stability and progress are not enemies, but partners in sustaining civilization.

He warned that today, when faith is mocked, patriotism shamed, and family values redefined beyond recognition, Europe is not simply losing its culture it is dismantling the very architecture of its moral order. “If our values and traditions are under attack,” he declared, “then so is Europe.”

Closing his speech, Thanasoulas reinterpreted the ancient Greek hymn for a modern Europe: “Sons of Europe, advance! Free your homelands, your children, your churches, and honor the wisdom of your ancestors. Now is the struggle for all.”

He ended by affirming that Europe’s survival will not depend on new ideologies or bureaucratic constructs, but on defending the same ideals that once saved it from destruction. For Thanasoulas, the heart of civilization still beats not in parliaments or institutions, but in every act of faith, every defense of home, and every family that chooses to endure.

Thibault de Montbrial Europe’s Last Line of Defense, We Must Fight Again

After the lunch recess, the conference resumed with one of the most sobering interventions of the day. Thibault de Montbrial, founder and president of France’s Centre for Reflection on Internal Security (CRSI), a lawyer, former paratrooper officer, and recipient of the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, addressed the audience with a warning that was both factual and moral: “The foundations of Western civilization are collapsing.”

A veteran in law and national security, de Montbrial began by noting that history does not move at a steady pace sometimes it drifts slowly, and sometimes it accelerates brutally. He argued that the West is now living through one of those accelerations, a time when the pillars of civilization are shaking. To illustrate this, he pointed to two defining moments in recent history.

The first, he said, was October 7, 2023 the Hamas attack on Israel. “That day,” he recalled, “Islamists around the world understood that the West could be defeated.” Israel, once seen as the most secure and technologically advanced bastion of Western civilization, bled within hours. “It was not only Israel that was attacked,” he said, “but the entire West.”

The second turning point, he continued, was September 10, 2025 the assassination of Charlie Kirk. “It was not merely a tragedy,” he said, “but the first time in modern history that a man was killed for preaching truth and fraternity.” De Montbrial warned that the normalization of political violence in the West marks a dangerous moral collapse. “What began in America,” he said, “will inevitably reach Europe.”

He identified two existential threats now confronting Europe: radical Islamism and transnational organized crime. Islamism, he explained, no longer operates only through terror but through infiltration into political parties, trade unions, corporations, and universities. “Look at Belgium and the United Kingdom,” he warned. “The erosion of values has already begun.” The second threat, he said, comes from criminal cartels spreading from Latin America into Western Europe. “Violence that was once unimaginable on European soil has now arrived,” he said, citing a chilling case in Belgium where a young man’s body was found hanging from a roadside sign.

These threats, he argued, stem from a deeper crisis the loss of Europe’s moral memory. “The European Union,” he said, “was created to unite nations through shared values, but it has degenerated into a market union without a soul. Its leadership has been consumed by the very ideologies that seek to destroy Europe.”

For de Montbrial, the response must be twofold: the restoration of authority and the reclamation of culture. “Restoring security is not the hardest task,” he said. “What truly matters is remembering who we are.” He urged the revival of historical education: “We must teach our children that they are heirs to a civilization built on Athens, Rome, and the spirit of the Cross.”

He warned that Western Europe, lulled by decades of peace, has forgotten the memory of violence and that unprepared nations will soon face chaos again.“ The best way to avoid violence,” he said, “is to be ready for it.”

De Montbrial revealed that he has lived under police protection for nine years, and that his participation in Dubrovnik was authorized only days earlier by French intelligence. “We must be prepared to suffer for what we believe,” he said. “The more we accept this truth, the less we will suffer.”

Though grave in tone, his speech ended with a call to courage, not despair: “Our ancestors fought for these values. If necessary, we must fight for them again.” He urged Europeans to restore pride in their children, to honor their heroes, and to recover the memory of the civilization they inherited. “Make Europe great again and France great again,” he concluded.

William Donahue We Must Rise Again for Our Generation

As the morning session concluded, the tone of the MEGA 6th Conference shifted from calm reflection to a spirit of determination. The discussions that had analyzed the crisis of civilization now turned to a more urgent question: “How will we carry on Charlie Kirk’s mission?”

The panel titled “The Legacy of Charlie Kirk: Mobilizing a New Generation of Conservatives” opened with William Donahue, founder and president of the College Republicans of America (CRA),delivering the session’s opening address as moderator.

Founded in 2023, the CRA grew to more than 300 chapters across the United States in just two years. Under Donahue’s leadership, it became the driving force of the conservative youth movement, mobilizing student activists across key battleground states during the 2024 election, reaching 1.1 million direct voter contacts in support of President Trump and Republican candidates. Before founding the CRA, Donahue served as president of the California College Republicans, helping secure major Republican victories in the 2020 and 2022 elections.

He took the podium and called for a moment of silence in honor of Charlie Kirk. The entire audience bowed their heads not merely in mourning, but as a collective vow to continue the legacy of faith and freedom that Kirk embodied.

When the silence ended, Donahue began speaking, his eyes glistening as he fought back tears. “Charlie Kirk was my hero,” he said.

“When I started the College Republicans, the first thing I did was to reach out to Tyler Bowyer, COO of Turning Point Action, and I told him I wanted to partner with them. I built my entire organization around Charlie’s model.”

To Donahue, Kirk was not just a mentor but a symbol a living proof that conviction, when lived out, could change nations. His death, he said, was “not the end of a life, but the beginning of a mission my generation must now inherit.”

Then his tone sharpened with resolve. “We must rise,” he declared. “For our country. For our future. Our opponents no longer fight by our rules we must act.” He explained that action was not about aggression but courage a willingness to defend truth, to stand firm in faith, and to meet hostility with clarity and strength. “Words are no longer enough,” he said. “The time has come for our generation to lead.”

He warned that the anger among young conservatives had reached a level unseen in generations. Turning toward Members of the European Parliament in attendance, he said, “You are our voice. I am only an activist but we rely on you to fight for us.”

Then, revealing his heritage, Donahue built a bridge between continents. “I am a second-generation Greek-American,” he said. “The soul of Europe is the beating heart of America. If Europe falls, our heritage dies. Our ancestors fought on countless battlefields for freedom. We must not let their sacrifice be in vain.”

He concluded by invoking Kirk’s legacy and his own generation’s calling: “Generation Z is known as the ‘Generation of Heroes.’ When they come of age, we will rise again.”

His words drew repeated applause the most sustained and emotional response of the entire conference. It was not merely a tribute to a young leader who lost his hero, but a collective declaration by a generation refusing to surrender faith and freedom.

Andrei Dîrlău Europe Can Rise Again Only Through Faith

Following William Donahue’s impassioned address, the atmosphere in the hall shifted from emotion to resolve. The next speaker to take the stage was Senator Andrei Dîrlău of Romania, a leading member of the AUR Party and one of the foremost voices of Christian conservatism in Eastern Europe. He currently serves in the Romanian Senate, where he continues to speak out on issues of foreign policy, European affairs, and the defense of moral values.

Opening his remarks, Dîrlău described this sixth edition of the MEGA Conference as “a tribute to Charlie Kirk,” calling him not merely a political activist but “a martyr of faith and a martyr of freedom.” From the outset, his tone was theological rather than political.

Dîrlău’s diagnosis of Europe’s crisis was clear: the continent is suffering from a collapse of faith. He defined a true martyr as one who relinquishes his own will to find freedom in the will of God and in that sense, Charlie Kirk’s life represented the moral core of Christian conviction. Kirk, he said, stood for his beliefs openly and paid the price for doing so.

He reminded the audience that Christianity itself was built upon the blood of martyrs. The earliest churches were raised over their tombs, and even today relics of the faithful dead lie beneath church altars. While some fear that speaking of martyrdom might provoke hostility, Dîrlău rejected such timidity, arguing that silence in the face of persecution is a denial of faith itself. “Fear,” he said, “is the enemy of belief.”

As his speech continued, Dîrlău drew a broader moral lesson from the life and death of Charlie Kirk. Kirk’s Turning Point movement, which fused Christian ethics with civic activism, was in his view a model for a new generation of faith-driven leadership in both America and Europe.

Turning to the present, Dîrlău described modern Europe as being caught in an “existential spiritual war. ”He called the woke ideology “a cancer that has metastasized into the social fabric of the West,” an atheistic revolution, and even a form of demonic warfare. In his words, “Just as the utopian communism of the 20th century collapsed under its own weight, so too will woke neo-Marxism another madness born of the same roots.”

Speaking as a Romanian who lived through totalitarianism, Dîrlău warned that the bureaucratic centralism of Brussels is displaying “the early symptoms of a supranational dictatorship.” His message was not alarmist but sober: Europe is once again drifting toward authoritarianism, this time in the name of progress.

The senator’s prescription was direct. “What Europe needs is not woke, but an awakening to Christ.” He urged Europeans to follow the spiritual revival now stirring in parts of the United States, and to bring God back to the center of European public life. Only politics rooted in faith, he said, can be blessed with enduring legitimacy.

In closing, Dîrlău reminded the audience of life’s brevity and the urgency of moral witness. “Life is short; we do not know when God will call us,” he said. “We must use our time to testify to the truth and rebuild Europe on the solid foundation of faith in God and in Jesus Christ.”

He concluded with quiet strength, not theatrics. He translated faith into the language of politics, presenting a vision of Europe grounded in spiritual courage. His conviction ignited faith in the hearts of those who listened. For Andrei Dîrlău, the message was unmistakable: Europe fell because it lost its faith and only faith can make it rise again.

Nicolas Bay Europe’s Freedom Is Born of Faith

After Romanian Senator Andrei Dîrlău concluded his address on faith and sacrifice as the moral foundation of civilization, the next speaker to take the stage was Nicolas Bay, Member of the European Parliament from France’s Identity-Liberties Party and a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Group.

Taking the podium, Bay expressed his gratitude to the organizers, to Stephen Bartulica, and to George Simion of Romania. His tone was calm, yet every word carried conviction.

He began his speech as a tribute to Charlie Kirk, calling his death “not an end, but a beginning” a symbol of a generation that chose to defend freedom to the very last moment. Kirk, he said, embodied the unity of faith and action, and “his spirit now lives on among the young conservatives of Europe.” Bay described Erika Kirk’s forgiveness of her husband’s killer as “a Christ-like act of mercy in an age of hatred,” saying it revealed faith as both courage and love.

Bay viewed Charlie Kirk’s movement as “the starting point of a conservative awakening and a cultural revival.” He recalled how Kirk mobilized young voters for Donald Trump’s campaigns and transformed American college campuses into spaces of free and open debate.

Turning his focus to Europe, Bay warned that “the so-called progressive left, in the name of tolerance and justice, is suppressing economic freedom, restricting mobility, and silencing dissent.” He compared this to “the revolutionary terror of 18th-century France,” where freedom was weaponized to destroy freedom itself.

“True liberty,” Bay declared, “is not granted by the state it is bestowed by God.” He argued that the strength of conservatism lies not in political power but in truth, courage, and respect. “We fight not to condemn, but to persuade,” he added.

For Bay, freedom is not merely political autonomy but “the freedom to remain who we are to keep our faith and our identity.” Every attack on belief, speech, or national character, he said, is an assault on the very idea of human dignity.

In closing, Bay stated: “The greatness of Europe and of Christian civilization was built by kings, saints, and martyrs. Through Charlie Kirk, we have gained another hero, another martyr. And his fight must now become our own.”

His voice remained measured, yet resolute. The freedom he spoke of was not a political privilege, but a spiritual freedom the restoration of human dignity through God. And that message continued to echo through the heart of Europe long after he left the stage.

Branko Grims Faith and Truth Will Save Europe

As Nicolas Bay concluded his address calling for “a restoration of freedom rooted in faith,” the final speaker, Branko Grims, took the stage.

A senior member of Slovenia’s Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), Grims has spent over two decades in parliament championing freedom, sovereignty, and Christian values. He currently serves as a Member of the European Parliament within the European People’s Party (EPP)and has consistently argued that Europe’s renewal must begin with the restoration of moral and spiritual foundations.

Grims first thanked MEP Stephen Bartulica and Romanian MP George Simion for bringing conservatives together across borders, calling their effort “an act of courage in a time that punishes truth.” He recalled a night in Croatia when a great cross illuminated the sky not as mere symbolism, but as a reminder that faith has always triumphed over darkness.

He placed Charlie Kirk’s legacy at the center of his address. Kirk’s greatest mission, he said, was the defense of freedom especially freedom of speech. “The fight for free expression never ends,” he declared. “The moment it disappears, all other freedoms collapse with it.” Citing George Orwell, he added, “Freedom of speech means the right to tell people what they don’t want to hear.” That courage, Grims said, is what Europe’s young generation must reclaim.

He praised Kirk for opening the eyes of young people and giving them a moral compass. A society that protects offenders while criminalizing dissent, he warned, is doomed to repeat its past mistakes. Beneath the rhetoric of equality and justice, he sees the rise of a new ideological order that enforces conformity and silences thought. “Today’s Europe,” he said, “is sliding into a polite totalitarianism a system that looks free but demands the silence of conscience.”

Grims described today’s radical left as “a false creed built on resentment and denial of truth.” “They are no longer a political movement,” he said, “but a new cult of deception and hatred.” In contrast, he emphasized that Charlie Kirk had reminded the West that Christianity is the root of Western civilization and the living source of freedom. “Faith,” Grims declared, “is not an artifact of the past it is the living foundation that upholds freedom today.”

In the latter part of his address, he turned to the question of unity. Kirk’s greatest legacy, he said, was his ability to unite conservatives beyond borders. “Europe’s right-wing movements remain divided, sometimes even hostile,” he warned. “There is no saving Europe without cooperation; freedom and truth demand solidarity.” He concluded, “We are not here to idolize one hero, but to raise millions of Charlie Kirks across Europe.”

Grims closed with conviction rather than flourish. “To defend Christian values is to defend civilization,” he said. “We must restore the greatness of the West and make 1984 fiction again.”

As his words ended, the hall answered with steady applause a shared affirmation that faith and freedom are not two causes, but one destiny.

Europe Restores Its Foundations — MEGA 6th Conference Declares a New Alliance for Faith, Freedom, and Truth

The sixth edition of the Make Europe Great Again (MEGA) Conference concluded in Dubrovnik, Croatia, marking not just a meeting but a historic moment of redefinition for Europe’s conservative movement.

Over two days, political leaders, Members of the European Parliament, scholars, authors, and journalists from more than thirty countries gathered to chart a clear course for conservatism’s future. Representatives came from Croatia, Romania, France, Slovenia, and Poland, as well as the United Kingdom, the United States, the Netherlands, Portugal, Greece, and Spain. Their mission was not rhetorical it was strategic: to strengthen the moral foundations and cultural continuity of Western civilization.

Speakers agreed that Europe’s greatest crisis today is not institutional but spiritual the loss of truth and the absence of faith. They warned that the weakening of moral order, not economic instability, lies at the root of Europe’s decline. The remedy, they argued, must begin with restoring faith as the moral foundation of public life, rebuilding the family as the nucleus of civilization, and defending freedom of speech as the final safeguard of democracy.

At the heart of the conference was a tribute to Charlie Kirk, honored not as a figure of memory but as a symbol of conviction a man who proved that faith and courage can turn belief into action. His life was remembered not as controversy, but as a demonstration of lived conviction, showing that faith is not a private sentiment but the power that builds civilization.

Participants issued a shared declaration: “Europe’s conservative movement is no longer in retreat it is rebuilding. We will restore our civilization not through ideology, but through truth; not through power, but through faith; not through division, but through responsibility.”

The discussions in Dubrovnik are now seen as a turning point a moment when conservatives from across continents formed a coherent front linking Europe, North America, Latin America, and Asia into a transnational alliance for truth and freedom.

The MEGA 6th Conference was not the conclusion of a series it was the beginning of a movement. Its message endures: “We will restore faith, defend freedom, and rebuild the moral foundations of Europe.”

This article stands as both a record and a witness a testament to what was spoken and decided in Dubrovnik, where conviction became cooperation, and faith became action.