Germany’s UN embarrassment: "Russia always has a hand in things"

The next day our neighbors were in a state of cat misery. “The world speaks Deutschland the mistrust” or “The payment for arrogance and lack of principles” was there about the defeat in the fight for the seat UN Security Council to read – the shame against Austria emotionally resembled a second one Córdoba.

Emil Brixformer director of the Diplomatic Academy, partially agrees with these findings. He had expected that the “weight of the Germans would be a problem for Vienna”, but “apparently many of the small ones are fed up with the dominance of the big ones”.

Many Germans also saw it that way: The fact that the country claims to be a member of the committee every eight years based on its economic performance is simply “arrogant,” wrote the Süddeutsche. The arrogance was visible in the fact that Chancellor Merz neither stand for candidacy nor election New York had tried hard, for example Christoph Heusgen – he was under Merkel highest foreign policy advisor in the Chancellery and is therefore Merz’s party colleague.

The Russian interference

Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul himself had taken responsibility for the debacle. Now that he actually has to fear for his office, he identified the actual culprits elsewhere: he assumed Russiato have influenced the election in Austria’s favor – because of Berlin’s “unwavering” support for Ukraine.

For Brix, who himself was ambassador in between 2015 and 2017 Moscow the argument is entirely plausible: “I believe that Moscow tried to prevent Germany from being elected. Russia has a hand in all of these things,” he says. But he doesn’t believe that Putin’s emissaries would have stood up for Austria in return: “That would be absurd. We have not taken a very friendly attitude towards the Russians on most issues. They tell us that at every opportunity.”

The day after the election, the question remains as to how big the influence of small Austria can actually be in the committee of the big ones. Brix definitely sees that Room for maneuverespecially when it comes to the reform of the Security Council itself: This has been “doctored about” for 20 years, but so far no one has been able to put an end to the self-paralysis of the veto powers: So far they can USA, Russia, France, Great Britain and China unilaterally block every resolution, which they do with pleasure. Although “no one can force the veto powers to give up power, the election of Austria as the representative of the “small ones” is definitely a signal, says Brix: “The smaller states want to prevent too much power from being in the hands of the big ones.”

Austria can also make a decisive contribution to the reorganization of peace missions and international humanitarian law, says Brix. That Vienna can also use its seat on the Security Council to position itself more strongly as a diplomatic player again – for example in negotiations about an end to the Ukraine-War – he doesn’t think so. “That has no influence at all.” The negotiations could only be concluded between the big players; getting involved “would be a waste of miles”. Austria just has to play its role in Brussels: “It will be important to take a common line as Europeans – that’s what it has to do EU finally get going.”

“Failure of the EU”

With Brussels The diplomat also takes a hard line when it comes to the election of the non-permanents themselves. For the diplomat, the fact that the undignified final between Germany and Austria could come about is a “failure of the EU”: Brussels failed to put forward a common candidate and coordinate the member states so that they do not compete against each other.

Such agreements have been in place for years in the other UN regional groups for the election of “non-permanents”. In the EU capital, the idea for this was only born the day after the German defeat: Parliament Vice-President Katarina Barley called on Thursday for a common EU seat on the UN Security Council – she is, unsurprisingly, German-born.