Lower thirds:
00:02 Report by Hans Brandt & Simon Young
00:20 Annalena Baerbock | Incoming President, UN General Assembly
00:57 Annalena Baerbock | Former German Foreign Minister | 1 March 2022
01:47 Annalena Baerbock | Former German Foreign Minister | 17 June 2024
02:37 Annalena Baerbock | Incoming President, UN General Assembly

Script:
Presidents of the UN General Assembly are normally appointed by a show of hands
But not Annalena Baerbock. 
At a UN meeting in June, Russia insisted she face a secret vote.
A delay - but in the end she was elected with just 7 countries opposing.   
+++SOT Annalena Baerbock Incoming UNGA President 
"I will serve all 193 member states as an honest broker and as a unifier."+++ 
That Moscow might not want to see Baerbock in an influential role
comes as no surprise.  
Just months after she became Germany’s Foreign Minister in December 2021 
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 
Baerbock soon became a staunch ally of Kyiv, 
visiting the country almost a dozen times while in office. 
And she became a vocal critic of Vladimir Putin - including at the UN.
+++SOT Annalena Baerbock Former German Foreign Minister 01.03.2022   
"Russia's war marks a new reality. It requires each and every one of us to take a firm and responsible decision and to take a side."+++
Baerbock also did not shy away from criticising China, 
at one point calling China’s president Xi Jinping a “dictator”. 
Baerbock said she often raised human rights concerns with Beijing. 
Climate change and international justice have been central for Baerbock 
ever since she entered politics in her twenties. 

She rose to become a co-leader of the German Greens. 
In 2021, she led her party into the general election. 
Emerging from that campaign as foreign minister 
she set out to pursue what she called a “feminist foreign policy”.
+++ Annalena Baerbock Former German Foreign Minister 17.6.2024
”The yardstick of women rights in societies is a crucial one and this is why we have to speak up as foreign ministers with a feminist foreign policy, as journalists, as people, as businessmen, when we see woman rights are coming under pressure this a danger for whole societies.”+++
But events gave her little chance of concentrating on that.
As the conflict in the middle east re-ignited, 
Baerbock repeatedly travelled to the region 
pressing for diplomacy and for humanitarian aid. 
After the German government collapsed 
and her party was booted out of office in early 2025 
Baerbock signaled she would leave parliament.
Her sights were set on another international job.
Speaking to DW after her election to the UN role, 
Baerbock's priorities were clear:
+++SOT Annalena Baerbock Incoming UNGA President 
“That together we have made the United Nations fit for the future and fit for the purpose meaning for it was founded for and this is Ensuring peace and security, development and human rights." +++
In the UN's 80th anniversary year, 
that commitment will be especially important.