Ireland begins EU presidency as protesters denounce warmongering bloc

On Wednesday July 1, Ireland marked the start of its presidency of the Council of the European Union with an event in Dublin, attended by heads of state from around the European continent. However, not far away in the same city, protesters were highlighting what the EU really stands for currently – warmongering, backing genocide, and enabling of the far-right.

The Council serves to represent the national governments of each member state, acting as a basis for national ministers to negotiate and adopt EU laws. Roughly equivalent to the Senate in Ireland or the United States, it shares legislative and budgetary powers with the EU Parliament.

The presidency for the council rotates every six months, and Ireland’s term will run from July to December 2026. The Irish government is already mismanaging its role, throwing away €300 million on the job, much of which will be spent on “security”. This seems to be just another step in the no longer creeping, but now galloping, militarisation of a supposedly neutral country.

Taoiseach Martin already botching presidency with war spending

The sum is triple that spent by Cyprus and Denmark during their presidencies. In 2022 the Czech Republic, a much bigger country than Ireland, spent just €84 million. Politico speculate that a sizeable chunk of the sum will be spent on drone defences for visits from the likes of Ukraine president Vladimir Zelensky, who was present at the Dublin event.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s government intends to rob from the sick and homeless with a grotesque €1.7 billion giveaway to Big Death. It is part of the government’s determined effort to pledge fealty to Trump, US capital and the NATO war machine.

Opposition to this sort of thing was the thrust of the protest taking place in Dublin on the same day. People Before Profit were present at the demonstration, and said:

As the EU pushes ahead with an €800 billion military build-up while remaining complicit in genocide, we need to build a movement that challenges war, austerity and the billionaire class profiting from both. That wealth should be invested in homes, healthcare, education, public transport and climate action, not weapons and permanent militarisation.

As Jacobin point out:

NATO members across Europe have embraced Donald Trump’s call to spend 5 percent of GDP on defense.

23 European Union states are members of NATO, the US-led alliance that has embraced never-ending bloodshed in Ukraine, and Washington’s crimes in West Asia. 5% represents a whopping increase over the roughly 2% most countries previously spent.

Trump has been demanding other NATO members ‘pay their way’ by matching US spending. The EU will thus emulate the US practice of absurd wastage on the military, demolishing social welfare at home in favour of mass murder overseas.

Protesters call for end to EU backing of Zionist genocide

There was also a strong pro-Palestine contingent at the protest, seeking to highlight the EU’s ongoing backing of so-called ‘Israel’ and its ongoing genocidal violence. The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign said:

Yesterday apartheid Israel murdered 8 people in Gaza including a woman and her one-year old baby daughter, bombed refugees in tents, and shot dead a fifteen-year old child in the West Bank. All with the arms, funding and political support of the EU.

We’re joining this demonstration on Wednesday to demand an end the EU’s shameful complicity in apartheid Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, to demand an arms embargo, an end to the EU-Israel Association Agreement; the immediate exclusion of Israel from the Horizon programme; no more settlement trade and the end to repression of solidarity.

A series of UN experts, including special rapporteur on Palestine Francesca Albanese, said in April 2026:

The European Union (EU) must immediately suspend the EU–Israel Association Agreement, which has granted Israel preferential access to the European market since 2000, despite well-documented human rights violations … including genocide

The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, has feebly proposed a partial suspension of the Zionist apartheid entity from the Horizon science research programme. Only full termination of all ties with the settler-colony will properly hold it to account for its crimes.

EU has enabled rise of far-right

As pointed out by former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, in the last decade, the EU has also operated as a democracy-deficient vehicle for the far-right’s continual rise. In the midst of a debt crisis across Europe, the EU prioritised bailing out the European Central Bank, while effectively imposing continent-wide austerity.

During negotiations on resolving Greece’s debt, German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble told Varoufakis in 2015 that “Elections cannot be allowed to change economic policy“. A convenient summation of how the EU operates, and capitalism more broadly. The policies of Schäuble and co. wrecked productive investment, and led to impoverished millions embracing reactionary political ideas.

The reaping of this prior sowing can now be seen in the EU Parliament, currently occupied by fascistic goons chanting “send them back”, in reference to their preference for racist mass deportation policies.

This is the reality of the current EU. Ireland’s presidency will have to be pretty spectacular to right this sinking ship, and it’s unlikely the pathetic Martin is up to the job.

Featured image via X