TEHRAN - Germany’s failure to secure a temporary seat on the UN Security Council on Wednesday came as a blow to Berlin.

This is the first time Germany has failed to win a rotating seat on the Council after decades of successfully securing one of the Western European seats every eight years. 

The Security Council consists of 15 members, including five permanent members and 10 elected members serving two-year terms. 

Germany was competing with Austria and Portugal for two seats allocated to the “Western Europe and Others” group. Portugal and Austria secured the positions instead, Al Jazeera reported.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul travelled to New York last week to personally lobby for Germany’s candidacy for the seat, reportedly meeting around 80 ministers and ambassadors at the UN and hosting a reception on Monday evening.

However, Germany won only 104 votes, falling 23 short of the two-thirds majority needed for election. Speaking with ARD television, Wadephul 
conceded that the failure was "a real disappointment." 

The failure fueled criticism at home, especially as Chancellor Friedrich Merz had promised to restore Germany’s influence in Europe and on the larger world.

Alice Weidel, co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), described the result as an “embarrassment”, while Adis Ahmetovic, foreign policy spokesman for the Social Democratic Party’s parliamentary group, said the vote was “a gauge of how [Germany] is perceived internationally,” Al Jazeera reported.

There is no single reason for Germany’s failure. However, Berlin’s blind support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza proved costly for Germany and degraded its status in the world.

Germany came after the U.S., providing lethal arms to Israel in the war on the Gaza Strip.

Foreign Minister Wadephul himself attributed the defeat to Germany’s positions on both Ukraine and Israel. “We have always taken a clear stance on certain issues, and these are positions that not all member states share,” Wadephul told reporters.
“There is our firm support for Ukraine; the fact that Russia does not want such a voice at the Security Council,” he said.
Wadephul also acknowledged that Germany’s support for Israel may have hurt its chances. “The fact that Germany must always assume a special responsibility for Israel in the Middle East conflict may also have cost votes.” 

However, some analysts have dismissed the suggestion that Germany’s support for Ukraine played a significant role in the vote, arguing instead that international opposition to Berlin’s backing of Israel was more likely the decisive factor.

“Let’s be clear: Germany’s support for Ukraine had nothing to do with it. Portugal and Austria – who beat Germany – are no less supportive of Ukraine,” said Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

“It has everything to do with Germany’s support for Israel’s genocide and the manner in which the German government has been willing to undermine international law and the UN Charter on behalf of Israel. Germany’s blind support for Israeli crimes cost Germany its seat on the UNSC. As it should.”
Parsi further argued that Germany’s recent foreign policy has damaged its international standing, despite the country’s diplomatic influence and financial contributions to the UN.

Craig Mokhiber, former director of the New York office of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), also linked the defeat to Germany’s position on Israel and Palestine.
“In a rare moment of justice at the UN General Assembly today, Germany lost its bid for a UN Security Council seat,” he said.

“Germany’s scandalous support for genocide in Palestine and aggression against Iran, and its repression of human rights defenders inside Germany, were all on display as the body handed Germany this unprecedented loss.”

To the surprise of the world, Chancellor Merz praised Israel’s war on Iran in June 2025, saying “Israel is doing the dirty work for us in Iran”.

Such blunt remarks by the leader of the most important European country that had a history of adopting rational and measured approaches toward international issues since the end of the Second World War were extremely unexpected.

Since Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023, Germany and institutional bodies have implemented a series of highly restrictive measures against Palestine solidarity protests. Human rights organizations and international observers have characterized this response as a "shrinking of civic space," citing a departure from Germany's usual standards for freedom of assembly and academic expression.

In May 2024, major gatherings at the Freie Universität Berlin (FUB) and Humboldt University (HU) were forcibly cleared by riot police within hours. At FUB, 79 protesters were arrested; at HU, dozens were injured as police blocked journalists and legal observers from the scene.

Even German philosopher and sociologist Jürgen Habermas, who died in March 2026, defended Israel’s disproportionate use of force against Palestinians in Gaza following the October 7 attack, saying Israel's retaliation was "justified in principle" and dismissed as "absurd" the dominant assertion that Israel was committing genocide.

It seems that support for Israel by German officials and some of its intellectuals is admissible even when Israel commits war crimes and crimes against humanity.  

Known as a law-abiding country, Germany has been adopting a selective approach toward international law. Some analysts believe the German government has not been clear on the importance it places on international law.
 
“To put it another way: Why didn't Merz describe the U.S. abduction of Venezuela's leader, Nicolas Maduro, in early January for what many observers believe it was: a violation of international law?” DW said in a commentary on its English website. 

While multiple UN officials and independent UN bodies have stated that Israeli actions in Gaza constitute war crimes, Germany has continued to back Israel.

While Frank-Walter Steinmeier from the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), who holds the ceremonial presidential post in Germany, announced on March 24 that the U.S.-Israel war on Iran was a “breach of international law”, the Merz government kept mum. 

The CDU's coalition partners, the Social Democrats, blame double standards for the failure. 

"Those who claim to be the guardians of the rules-based international order must not apply double standards when it comes to international law," said their foreign policy expert, Adis Ahmetovic, in Berlin. "Where the impression of double standards arises, credibility suffers."
Jan van Aken, co-chair of the socialist opposition Left party, put it more bluntly. "This is what happens when you shred international law," he said on ARD.