Presidential candidate Catherine Connolly has said there are “parallels” between the current increase in military spending in Germany and its rearmament during the 1930s.
The Independent candidate, who is supported by a broad left-wing alliance of parties, was speaking as part of a fireside chat with the University College Dublin Politics Society on Wednesday night.
Ms Connolly told the event that the world was “normalising war and normalising genocide”, and that peace has become an unacceptable word. She said promoting peace and neutrality was one of her “main motivating factors” in running for president.
Ms Connolly told students that Ireland, as a neutral country, should champion peace, particularly given its history as a colonised country, its experience of famine and of the Troubles and subsequent peace process in Northern Ireland.
“I think we should draw on that experience and use all our skills as a neutral country to go down a road of peace,” she said. “If we lose, we lose, but you lose by war anyway. But let’s try. Let’s say: this is wrong.
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“We’re increasing our spend all over Europe on the military industrial complex. They’re absolutely championing the cause of the military-industrial complex in Germany, as a booster for the economy,” she said.
“Seems to me, there are some parallels with the ’30s. I don’t wish to depress you. There is hope. And we have voices. And we can use them.”
Germany is planning to double its defence spending over the next five years, with plans to invest almost €650 billion in largely European contracts and suppliers.
Under the measures agreed by the German government earlier this year, the country would hit Nato’s new defence spending target of 3.5 per cent of GDP by 2029.