Ireland’s Taoiseach Micheál Martin has expressed deep concern about the increasingly hostile tone of political discourse across Europe and the United States, attributing the rise in aggression to the widespread influence of social media.
“I’m very worried about the coarseness of language in public discourse at the moment, no matter where you go, even in Ireland,” Martin told Euronews.
“And social media has facilitated this, this kind of sharp soundbite of hate, of dismissing everybody if you don’t agree with their view, of labelling people and putting people into pigeonholes.”
“The capacity to have debate, as we’re having now, is fast slipping away from the public realm a bit and that worries me,” the Irish prime minister added.
Turning his attention to Hungary, Martin criticised the sometimes inflammatory rhetoric coming out of Budapest.
“I look at some of the rhetoric that’s emanating from the Hungarian government towards Europe. Saying ‘we’ll conquer Europe, or we’ll take them over,’” said.
Martin warned that such language can inflame public opinion “very negatively.”
The premier also took aim at Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for blocking EU-level decisions regarding Ukraine, particularly those related to enlargement and the European Peace Facility (EPF), the EU’s main tool for supplying military assistance to Ukraine as it defends itself against Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Martin voiced his alarm over what he sees as an erosion of fundamental rights across the EU, criticising Orbán’s “abuse of the veto” to obstruct decisions on Ukraine.
While Ireland, as a neutral country, does not supply weapons to Ukraine, it contributes to the EPF through non-lethal military support. With the EPF facing significant delays, EU countries have resorted to bilateral arms transfers. Ireland, for example, has recently partnered with Lithuania to build bomb shelters for schools in Odesa.
Martin accused Orbán of exploiting EU rules, reiterating support for triggering Article 7, a mechanism that can suspend a member state’s voting rights in cases of persistent rule-of-law violations.
“People are exploiting the mechanisms of the veto,” he said. “Unreasonably in my view, unreasonably.”
Hungary is also blocking progress on Ukraine’s EU membership bid and frequently condemns Western political and military backing for Kyiv. In contrast, Dublin is among the most vocal EU capitals in support of enlargement and backs Ukraine’s accession.
“It’s outrageous what’s going on at the moment. In my view, it’s essential that Ukraine becomes a member of the European Union for geopolitical reasons,” Martin said.
“Europe has made a lot of attempts to try and unblock these. Likewise, the EPF, the European Peace Facility has slowed down Ireland’s contribution to Ukraine.”
ADVEReadNOWISEMENTIreland’s evolving role in European defence
As the EU deals with a shifting security landscape, discussions around defence spending and cooperation are intensifying, including proposals for common borrowing to finance shared defence needs.
Martin offered a rational view on whether Ireland supports such an approach.
“I think on defence we accept the inevitability that in terms of the multi-financial framework there will be member states who will want some portion of that to be allocated to defence needs,” he said.
“Ireland has no interest in getting in the way of other countries in terms of their necessities, their existential sense of having to protect themselves given the Russian invasion of Ukraine, that has changed the entire security paradigm in Europe.”
ADVEReadNOWISEMENTWhile maintaining its long-standing policy of neutrality, Ireland is increasingly involved in European security efforts.
Martin pointed to the country’s vulnerabilities in areas such as cyber security and the protection of subsea cables, which are critical for communications and data flows.
“Ireland itself understands we have vulnerabilities on cyber security, on subsea cable and protecting those, and that’s why we’re involved in a lot of PESCO (Permanent Structured Cooperation) projects — or quite a number of PESCO projects — on that,” he said.