09:30 – 10:45 – ◆ Discussion Panel: Free Speech or Regulated Speech? Identifying ways to defend freedom of expression.
- Robert Roos (Entrepreneur, former MEP, Netherlands) – Moderator
- Rod Dreher (Author, USA)
- Jay Patel (President of Transatlantic Sovereignty Institute, UK)
- Silvia Uscov (Attorney, Romania)
Good morning everyone,
Before we start I want to thank three great people for organizing this MEGA event:
- George Simion
- Bryan Brown
- Steven Bartulica
I’m really proud to say these wonderful men are my friends. But also the people in their teams earn a warm applause. Without them it wouldn’t be possible to be here together today. They made this possible.The MEGA events are very important. We are not only sharing our views on important topics, we are networking. Exchange business cards, and grow this movement of freedom loving people. We started as a little snowball but we will become an avalanche of truth, freedom and sovereignty. The US did it, now it’s time for Europe to do the same.
I thank you all for joining us today for what promises to be a timely and crucial conversation. In an age where the right to express an unpopular opinion is increasingly under pressure, we are faced with a question that cuts to the core of democracy: What happens to freedom when offense becomes a weapon, and feelings become law?
We live in a society where saying “I was offended” now carries legal and social weight—often enough to silence debate, ruin reputations, or trigger censorship. But….., but “Being offended is not a consequence—it’s just a feeling.” Free speech is not meant to protect the agreeable or the polite; it exists precisely to protect the speech you don’t like. The fight to defend unpopular opinions isn’t just legal—it is moral.
The growing culture of labeling—racist, denier, anti-this or anti-that—has replaced argument with accusation. And when self-censorship becomes the norm, when laws like the Digital Services Act empower unaccountable actors to police thoughts under vague terms like “disinformation,” we must ask: Who decides what is true? And more importantly—who is silenced?
We must ensure that the laws we pass don’t become the tools that silence the very debates democracy depends on.
Democracy does not die from shouted disagreement. It dies from the silence of the good people.
Free speech is not only a fundamental right, it is a fundamental obligation for a healthy democracy
Today, let’s speak up. Like Charlie Kirk did. Not just for free speech, but for the right to disagree, to challenge, to offend—and to do so without fear. Because when speech dies, so does freedom.
Let the discussion begin.
Rob Roos is a Senior Fellow at the Gold Institute for International Strategy, a Washington D.C. based foreign policy and defense think tank.
