by Gregor Spitzen
[REGNUM] Once upon a time, in the spring of 2022, Annalena Baerbock was Germany's most popular politician, a genuine contender for the chancellorship, and the "embodiment of feminist foreign policy," as her personal fans, Green Party voters, and other gender equality advocates liked to call her. However, that was a long time ago.
Ouch.Now Annalena Baerbock, whose tenure as head of the German Foreign Ministry is remembered by both politicians and voters as a nightmare,
…double ouch…
heads the UN General Assembly – a minor but highly honorable post at the organization’s New York headquarters.
Minor, anyway. Since it’s her, how honourable it might be is debatable.
Because of this, Baerbock continues to be subjected to vicious and caustic, but most importantly, well-deserved ridicule in her homeland. The circumstances under which she received her sinecure in New York are truly not conducive to gaining authority.
For example, the Green Party minister's achievements at the helm of German foreign policy were more than modest: Baerbock is remembered primarily for numerous blunders, slips of the tongue, breaches of diplomatic etiquette, and the insane spending of German taxpayers' money on photographers and makeup artists.
And she also received the post of head of the General Assembly by unceremoniously taking it from Helga Schmid, a career diplomat and former OSCE Secretary General, which also did not add to the "green" politician's love among his compatriots.
Baerbock, like her former boss at the Federal Foreign Office, exercised her right of first refusal during the appointment. The former minister claims the procedure was necessitated by the circumstances of the early Bundestag elections, but not everyone believed this account.
Baerbock decided not to leave the political scene, but to bask in the spotlight for another year and show off on the front pages of newspapers, while also earning $13,000 a month for her “don’t kick a man when he’s down” job—this explanation for her behavior seems much more logical and plausible to many.
STYLISH, FASHIONABLE, INSTAGRAMMABLE
On the eve of her inauguration, Annalena Baerbock began posting boastful stories about her pompous and eventful life in Manhattan on Instagram*, provoking another wave of hate directed at her.
According to her, the videos are necessary to reach a younger target audience and engage them with the work of the UN. However, critics believe that the former Green Minister's pompous videos are far more self-indulgent than educational or popular.
Naturally, Baerbock is a little upset by this attitude. However, the office with the sign "Her Excellency Madam President" at the UN headquarters on First Avenue in New York City somewhat softens the negative feelings and fills the 44-year-old woman with undisguised pride.
Moreover, the highly trained UN staff, unlike their ungrateful compatriots and colleagues in the diplomatic profession, constantly show her demonstrative respect, if not servility.
So the ambition of the new General Assembly president should be satisfied, at least in part.
Notably, in her first major inaugural interview in her new position, she spoke not only about the circumstances of her move to New York and her vision for the new role of the United Nations, but also about speculation surrounding her deeply personal relationship with former US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Rumors of a romantic relationship between Baerbock and Blinken surfaced in March 2025, several months after the former minister's separation from her husband, Daniel Holefleisch, which they both confirmed in late 2024. Baerbock has not yet commented on rumors about a possible new partner.
However, if the story about an affair with Blinken, who is 19 years her senior, is ultimately confirmed, many pieces of the puzzle will fall into place: an unexpected divorce from her husband, her refusal to run for parliament, and the ugly trick with Helga Schmid's position, stolen from under her nose for the sake of her subsequent move to New York.
However, what sacrifices would you not make for the sake of unexpected love?
THE IDEA OF PEACEKEEPERS
As Germany's Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock regularly spouted out astonishing ideas and made controversial statements that cast doubt on her professional competence. There's a good chance she'll follow a well-trodden path as President of the UN General Assembly.
However, for now, Baerbock behaves more or less sensibly in his public appearances, gradually getting rid of his aplomb and, when raising issues for discussion, inviting opponents to debate rather than presenting them with faits accomplis in an ultimatum form.
Her awakening desire to stand above the fray and act as an impartial moderator, as befits the President of the General Assembly, can only be welcomed. However, this is clearly not enough to play a truly significant role in global politics and give the UN, as the world's leading supranational organization, a new impetus for development.
Annalena Baerbock, despite her pompous position, continues to be a very limited person with a mediocre knowledge of history, a lack of understanding of the mechanisms of diplomatic work and a significant lack of strategic vision.
This was clearly demonstrated, for example, in Baerbock's desire to resolve the conflict in Ukraine with the help of UN peacekeepers.
"If a peace agreement is reached, it must be secured in the best possible way. And if the majority of member states agree that the blue helmets are also necessary for this, then that is what will hopefully ensure peace in the long term," the former German foreign minister said.
Although "Madame President" spoke about the "blue helmets" in a very veiled manner and without her signature aplomb, the mere mention of UN peacekeeping forces in the context of Ukraine already reveals her fundamental misunderstanding of the problem.
Russia, apparently, is determined not to freeze the conflict or postpone its resolution for years, leaving the problem to future generations to resolve. After all, as the experience of deploying UN peacekeepers in various regions of Africa and the Balkans shows, the deployment of "blue helmets" not only fails to resolve existing tensions but often exacerbates them.
Moreover, given the fact that the UN's governing apparatus is effectively under US control, it is hard to believe that the "blue helmets" will act as real peacekeepers in the conflict zone.
UN troops, for example, blatantly failed their mission in Kosovo, where they demonstrated their blatant inability to rein in Albanian armed groups who had committed a veritable cultural and religious genocide against the region's Serb population. Therefore, if they were suddenly deployed to Ukraine, there is virtually no doubt which side they would side with, for example, in a religious conflict between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate and Ukrainian schismatics.
In principle, Russian skepticism, albeit for diametrically opposed reasons, is shared by international experts.
"If UN missions are not equipped with what they need, they end up creating deadlock instead of progress," warn analysts from the independent American think tank Stimson Center in a report published in March 2025.
Pro-Ukrainian politicians in the US are also skeptical about the use of "blue helmets." For example, former US National Security Advisor and ardent neocon John Bolton, in a comment to The Telegraph, warned of a "high risk" that international peacekeeping forces in Ukraine could consolidate existing front lines and thereby permanently establish the de facto division of the country.
In his view, there's a danger that an observer mission with a weak mandate will simply record violations without preventing them. This won't ensure peace, but rather create a frozen status quo.
To achieve lasting peace, a reliable peace treaty followed by a ceasefire is essential. Without these prerequisites, no amount of "blue helmets" will be able to achieve peace in Ukraine.
It is a pity that Madam President of the UN General Assembly does not understand such elementary things
Related:
Annalena Baerbock 09/18/2025 Baerbock: The UN will continue to work on resolving the conflict in Ukraine.
Annalena Baerbock 05/07/2025 A cook, a butcher and a lady who charmed a prince: who will get into the German government
Annalena Baerbock 05/06/2025 ‘Words Can't Begin to Express the Outrage I Feel at Having the GERMAN Government Lecture the US SecState on the Need to Spy on Political Opposition’
Annalena Baerbock 09/18/2025 Baerbock: The UN will continue to work on resolving the conflict in Ukraine.
Annalena Baerbock 05/07/2025 A cook, a butcher and a lady who charmed a prince: who will get into the German government
Annalena Baerbock 05/06/2025 ‘Words Can't Begin to Express the Outrage I Feel at Having the GERMAN Government Lecture the US SecState on the Need to Spy on Political Opposition’