50 years ago, the social democrat Brandt gave a speech at the United Nations. Today, Chancellor Scholz is another SPD politician at the lectern. The war in Ukraine is overshadowing desired reforms.
Exactly fifty years ago, Willy Brandt stood at the lectern in the World Room of the United Nations in New York – on September 26, 1973. “There should be no resignation in the face of hardship,” Brandt cracked into the microphone in his distinctive voice. Germany has been a UN member for 50 years – and is now the second largest donor. The Social Democrat Brandt had already declared back then: “Anyone who wants to outlaw war must outlaw hunger.”
Today there is another Social Democrat in the Weltsaal in New York: Chancellor Olaf Scholz. And the Hamburg SPD politician knows his Brandt: “Today we see: Willy Brandt’s sentence also applies the other way around. Anyone who wants to outlaw hunger must outlaw Russia’s war,” Scholz had explained to the General Assembly a year ago.
Jens Plötner is the Chancellor’s foreign policy advisor and says so ARD capital studioeven the otherwise sober Hanseatic Scholz knows the significance of this 50th anniversary: ”I’m not giving too much away when I say that this historic bridge from Brandt to Scholz is very meaningful for the Chancellor.”
Blocked UN Security Council
Scholz knows what big footsteps he is following, says Plötner. In the footsteps of the man who had far-sightedly described the importance of the United Nations in his speech: “Man’s ability to reason made the United Nations possible. Man’s penchant for unreason makes it necessary.”
The détente politician Brandt explained that not only tension but also relaxation can be contagious. But the turnaround Chancellor Scholz is now dealing with a Russian war of aggression. Relaxation? Advisor Plötner puts it into perspective: relaxation must remain the goal – “but we must not be naive.”
Scholz experiences a paralyzed UN. A blocked Security Council in which, alongside China, Russia in particular has been systematically thwarting UN goals by veto for years, first on the issue of Syria and now on its own war of aggression. The Chancellor will also address this in the general debate and then also during his appearance in the UN Security Council.
“Blant imperialism of Russia”
In any case, foreign policy advisor Plötner doesn’t mince his words. “The Security Council is blocked for one reason: one of its permanent members is a perpetrator in this war.” Russia has trampled on the fundamental principles of the UN Charter, which the Security Council was supposed to protect.
Scholz had already spoken of the “naked imperialism of Russia” last year. Nevertheless, he wants to continue to promote his idea of a rules-based multipolar world. A year ago, Scholz held up the UN Charter at the lectern and shouted: “This charter is our collective rejection of a world without rules.”
The problem, as the Chancellor sees the situation, is not a lack of rules, but a lack of will to enforce them. Scholz wants to ensure exactly that. Also in the UN Security Council, which is currently paralyzed. Germany wants to join the body again as a non-permanent member in 2027/28, which currently consists of five permanent and the same number of non-permanent members.
Withdrawal of Russian troops as a prerequisite
Scholz and others also want to further reform the committee. Germany has also been hoping for its own permanent seat for years. But that currently seems even more unrealistic than a quick end to the Ukraine war.
In his speech this year, the Chancellor once again formulated a Russian withdrawal from Ukrainian territory as a prerequisite for the end of the war. “An order from Putin would be enough. But the order doesn’t come, and that stands in the way of peace negotiations,” says foreign policy advisor Plötner.
What would Willy Brandt do?
Scholz still wants to speak to the Security Council on Wednesday as a guest in the special session on Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will also be there – and may meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the hall. The stage for this is a Security Council blocked by Russia’s veto power.
For Plötner it is not a superfluous event. The Security Council is “the showcase of the international community” in which the vast majority will again publicly condemn the Russian war of aggression, visible to everyone, says the foreign policy advisor.
He once again draws a link to the détente politician Brandt and his appearance in New York fifty years ago. Of course you could ask yourself: What would Willy Brandt do in this situation? Plötner’s answer: “He would also say, it’s good that we are in NATO, firmly anchored in the EU, and good that we can support Ukraine and its people from a position of strength.”