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One year after the end of the mandate, the re-election of the Secretary-General of the United Nations seems increasingly difficult. So far, only the Egyptian Boutros-Ghali has not been re-elected. The UN is in financial difficulties and the United States is not satisfied with those responsible, including the Portuguese. But the US elections can still change the picture.
It has been a particularly difficult year for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, as António Guterres has discovered. In an organization in which the United States has enormous weight, with the right of veto in the Security Council, where they are the largest financial contributors but also the largest debtors, the Secretary General is forced to mediate in a confrontation that is increasingly of access between Washington and Beijing, with the pandemic as a throwing weapon.
In the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the UN on Tuesday, Guterres did not avoid criticizing the populist right, in a split directed at leaders like Donald Trump. It is true that, depending on the outcome of the US elections, which are already on November 3, Guterres will have to deal with a more (Joe Biden) or less (Trump) favorable president of the United States.
“Populism and nationalism have failed. These approaches to containing the virus have often clearly made things worse, ”Guterres charged. Listening to him, it’s hard not to remember that his term ends the year. And that, although practically all the UN Secretary Generals have been re-elected, there is a precedent for a US veto: that was the case of the Egyptian Boutros Boutros-Ghali, in 1996.
“If a victory for Joe Biden will bring a US president who is more sympathetic to the multilateral and global logic of the United Nations and his secretary general, that does not mean that the United States with Donald Trump wants to adopt an extreme attitude,” warns José. Teixeira Fernandes, researcher at the Portuguese Institute of International Relations (IPRI-NOVA), in a comment to SOL, recalling that Guterres “comes from a European / Western country, which is a friendly country and traditionally close to the United States.”
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