Didier Reynders not elected as the new Secretary General of the Council of Europe

The Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders was not elected as the new Secretary-General of the Council of Europe (CoE).

Instead,  the center-right Marija Pejčinović Burić, Croation Foreign Minister, was chosen as the new Secretary-General of the CoE.  She had received 159 votes from 268 members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the CoE (PACE) in Strasbourg. Meanwhile Didier Reynders had 105.

 

I congratulate @MarijaPBuric for her election as the new Secretary General of the Council of Europe and wish her plenty of success.
I would like to thank the Belgian Parliamentarians for their support and the whole team that helped me during this campaign @coe pic.twitter.com/JE0AGXB2Lg

— didier reynders (@dreynders) June 26, 2019

 

These results seem to reflect the decision of PACE to allow Russian representatives to return to the chamber. It had been 5 years since Moscow was not allowed to vote because of their annexation of Crimea.

Russia threatened to leave PACE if they would not be allowed to vote in order to replace Thorbjørn Jagland as Secretary-General.