The UN General Assembly elected Berbock as the president of the 80th session by secret ballot, with 167 countries voting in her favor. Another seven votes went to former OSCE Secretary-General Helga Schmidt.
Berbock said after the vote that the 80th session of the UN General Assembly would be a "decisive moment" for the World Organization, as it is under enormous political and financial pressure. She promised that its doors "will always be open to everyone".
Russia's reaction was not long in coming. Russia's First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyansky noted that Berbok is known for her “fierce Russophobia“ and “very strange statements“. According to the diplomat, Moscow has “serious and well-founded doubts” about the impartiality of the former German minister.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, in turn, said that it was strange to see the granddaughter of a Nazi, who is proud of her grandfather's "feat", as president of the General Assembly in the year of the 80th anniversary of the Victory.
The 80th session of the General Assembly under Berbock's leadership will begin in September.
The nomination of former German Foreign Minister Analene Berbock for the post of president of the 80th session of the UN General Assembly may be part of her strategy to take the post of Secretary-General of the world organization, writes the German newspaper Berliner Zeitung.
„A symbolic decision, and perhaps something more. It is likely that in the end she herself will propose someone to take her place. This will not be the first time she has done so,“ the article says.
According to the author of the article, the former head of the German Foreign Ministry wants to succeed UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, whose term ends in 2026.
“For Berbock, this is an opportunity to fill the power vacuum with her ideas and issues that are particularly close to her heart: climate and feminism,“ the article says.