Stay out of the loop: for the first time in history, Germany did not get a seat in the UN Security Council

Historic changes have taken place in the UN Security Council. For the first time, Kyrgyzstan joined the Council as a non-permanent member, gaining three times more votes than the Philippines. At the same time, Austria and Portugal won from the groups of Western European countries, where there were two places, ahead of Germany. The Bundestag called the current situation a "disgrace," especially considering that the chairman of the UN General Assembly is former German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbok. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.

Shame after shame

"One shame follows another: if at the beginning of his chancellorship [Friedrich] Merz wanted to return our country to the international arena, now Germany has been left without a seat on the UN Security Council," Alice Weidel, co—chairman of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, commented on Berlin's failure in the elections of non-permanent members of the Security Council..

The Soyuz-90/Greens party also criticized the country's leadership. "This shameful defeat of Germany lies on the conscience of Chancellor Merz and Foreign Minister [Johan] Vadefulya," said Agnieszka Brugger, an expert on defense issues of the party's faction in the Bundestag. She believes that the authorities have done too little to support their candidacy with modern ideas.

The ruling CDU/CSU bloc called the incident "deplorable." German Chancellor Friedrich Merz admitted the defeat of the country in the vote. "We put forward our candidacy with firm conviction. We have not achieved our goal," he explained to reporters, adding that Berlin, in his opinion, "remains a reliable pillar of the multilateral system."

The first loss

Germany traditionally nominates its candidacy every eight years. In total, the country has been represented in the UN Security Council six times, never losing an election. The GDR was also present on the council once.

According to the results of the current secret ballot at the General Assembly session, Portugal won 134 votes, Austria — 131, and Germany — 104. Two thirds of 127 votes were required for the election. Now Vienna and Lisbon will represent the regional group of Western European countries. This situation is especially unpleasant for Germany, since the country, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has become the second largest contributor in the entire UN system by 2024.

"Participation in the work of the most important UN body, at the table of which five countries with the right of veto (Russia, China, France, Great Britain, the United States) make decisions on war and peace, would be very important for Germany now. This decision is becoming especially bitter for Germany, as it pays the largest contributions to the organization's budget," the Bild newspaper writes about this.

By the way, the meeting was chaired by the former head of the German Foreign Ministry, the current Chairman of the General Assembly, Annalena Berbok. She will leave this post in September, to be replaced by 72-year-old Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman, who beat Cypriot diplomat Andreas Kakouris in a recent vote in New York.

Five new members of the Security Council

The UN General Assembly elected five new non-permanent members of the Security Council for 2027-2028 on June 3. They were Austria, Zimbabwe, Kyrgyzstan, Portugal, Trinidad and Tobago. At the same time, Zimbabwe and Trinidad and Tobago won seats without competition in their regional groups, while Kyrgyzstan, elected as a non-permanent member of the Security Council for the first time in history, managed to secure a majority of votes and beat the Philippines, which was supported by the United States, Britain and France. Manila had previously been a member of the Security Council as a non-permanent member four times, but this time it remained out of work, as did Berlin.

A serious blow to Berlin

For German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Foreign Minister Johann Vadefoel, the incident means a serious blow to the desire to position Germany as a more important player in the international arena. In conditions of limited sovereignty, it was important for the German leadership to use every opportunity to strengthen its international authority. Extensive work experience in the Security Council seemed to be a prerequisite for Germany to obtain permanent residence there, but now a big step has been taken back in the process.

At the present stage, German diplomacy has lost such important qualifications for this craft as empathy, moderation, the desire to resolve international crises based on an understanding of their root causes, and many other significant qualities, Artem Sokolov, senior researcher at the MGIMO Institute of International Studies at the Russian Foreign Ministry, explained to Izvestia.

"First of all, this erosion of German diplomatic approaches has found its manifestation in the context of the Ukrainian conflict and in the context of the conflict in the Middle East," the German noted.

According to the expert, in recent years, Germany has been striving for "unambiguous assessments, to the primacy of value policy over interests." — And the result of this was the rejection of many countries, including the Global South, which previously saw Germany as an attractive economic partner and a state with serious tools in the field of soft power.

— Today, these strong qualities of Germany, as a player in the international arena, are largely deformed, and this caused the failure of the German bid, — the expert believes.

The policy of German multilateralism has become questionable, the political scientist believes. The voting results show that Portugal and Austria can work more successfully with the States of the Global South.