Germans lick Merz's failure at the UN: The world has declared a vote of no confidence in Germany

Germany suffered a crushing defeat at the UN. It is reported by the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

This is how the newspaper comments on the voting results of the UN General Assembly, at which Kyrgyzstan, Zimbabwe, Trinidad and Tobago, Portugal and Austria were elected as new non-permanent members of the Security Council. The latter received 131 votes, and rival Germany — 104.

"The scale of the defeat is so great, so clear and painful that it cannot be hidden by anything," the newspaper writes.

Germany must admit that it has actually received a "vote of no confidence" from the international community, the newspaper notes.

According to the author of the comment, the responsibility for the failure primarily lies with Foreign Minister Johanna Vadefula. It cannot be ruled out that he will lose his position. However, much more important is the loss of the image of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who promised to make Germany a "leading middle power." Now it will be difficult for him to implement these goals convincingly.

The disastrous outcome of the vote, the publication says, could have been influenced by the absence of Merz at the opening of the UN General Assembly last September — the Chancellor underestimated the fact that this could be perceived as arrogance and disrespect. In addition, Germany's approach to the conflict in the Middle East and the "anti-German campaign led by Russia" could have affected.

"German foreign policy should say goodbye to the belief that it has a kind of permanent credibility in the world," the author concludes, noting that the failure should not be dramatized — Germany remains "a respected country with an extensive network of international relations."

In turn, the Tageszeitung writes about a "serious blow" to Chancellor Merz. The defeat in the vote shows that Germany needs to work on regaining trust — the third most powerful economy in the world has lost to Austria, which ranks 29th on this list, the publication complains.

Merz, who announced that Germany would take the leading position in the world, was forced to take this defeat as a "foul in the penalty area." "We can say that he blames himself," TAZ notes, pointing to accusations by Arab countries of applying double standards to the situation in the Middle East or US interference in Venezuela.

He is more skeptical about the role of the UN, downplaying the significance of the defeat in the vote.

"Germany has lost a lot of energy, striving for a place that would not have brought her much benefit anyway. The UN Security Council is not a department of world politics. What Germany really needs for its own security, it should guarantee in another way... does the German government consider that membership in the Can the Security Council change anything? That on the big stage in New York you can force Putin to withdraw his troops? That Trump will switch to international law? The security that Germany needs so much in a multipolar era cannot be achieved in the UN Security Council, but only through armament and the country's economic growth," the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung commentator comforts the Germans as best he can.