Paddy Cosgrave declined to answer questions about the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza upon his return to Web Summit following the backlash from sponsors to comments he made on social media last year that led to his resignation from the chief executive role.
Mr Cosgrave was speaking to reporters at a press conference on Wednesday in Lisbon, where the annual tech conference is taking place this week. It is the first edition of the conference since Mr Cosgrave’s resignation from the company he cofounded in the weeks before the 2023 conference and his return to the position some six months later.
The conference was attended by German vice chancellor and Green Party politician Robert Habeck on Tuesday.
Asked whether he raised the humanitarian crisis that has unfolded in Gaza since Israel began military operations there in retaliation for the October 7th attack last year, Mr Cosgrave said he spoke with Mr Habeck about “tariffs on electric vehicles”.
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He said: “It was a very interesting discussion, and we were very privileged, I think, to have Robert Habeck here with the largest ever German trade delegation. It was just absolutely huge. And during, I think, a challenging time for the German government.”
It was Mr Cosgrave’s posts in the wake of Hamas’s October 7th attack and Israel’s military response last year that led to a number of large corporate sponsors of Web Summit, including IBM, Google, Amazon and Meta, to pull out of the 2023 conference.
[ Web Summit 2024: A new version of Paddy Cosgrave keeps it light on opening nightOpens in new window ]
However, Meta and IBM have returned as sponsors of the 2024 event, according to its website.
“I’m shocked at the rhetoric and actions of so many Western leaders & governments, with the exception in particular of Ireland’s government, who for once are doing the right thing,” one of Mr Cosgrave’s posts read.
“War crimes are war crimes even when committed by allies, and should be called out for what they are.”
In a subsequent post, he described the actions of Hamas as “outrageous and disgusting”.
On Wednesday, Mr Cosgrave said in his discussions with Mr Habeck, he raised the Irish government’s recent decision to back European Union (EU) tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, which he described as “unusual because Ireland doesn’t have a car manufacturing industry”.
He said Ireland has a Green Party, “which is trying to allegedly rapidly move Ireland towards a green transition”, while Germany, which has an auto industry to protect, voted against the tariff regime.
Separately, Mr Cosgrave claimed that Web Summit had made “€4 million or €5 million” in profit and €10 million or €11 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) this year despite the loss of key sponsors in 2023. “And we’ve done that, I think, against a lot of clouds gathering around start-ups,” he said.
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