Guterres as next UN Secretary General

Intro: Goan by origin, Edgar Francisco Dias Valles is a citizen of Portugal. He heads Casa de Goa (Portugal), an association of Goan diaspora

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What was a mere possibility has come true: Antonio Guterres, the Portuguese candidate, will be the next Secretary General of the United Nations.

In fact, on October 6, the 15 members of the Security Council voted unanimously to propose Guterres to be the General Assembly. So, he will be elected in a very short time for a mandate of 5 years, with the possibility of a second mandate of another 5 years. He will be one of most powerful politicians in the world.

In the previous days, there was uncertainty about the decision. Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, was promoting a new candidate, the Bulgarian Kristalina Georgieva, and the Washington Post published an article about the Portuguese candidate not having been very efficient in financial management as UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

People doubted if the five permanent members of Security Council would agree. Russia put forward a woman candidate from Eastern Europe. But Vitaly Churkin, the Russian Ambassador at United Nations, declared after the decision was made: “We expressed our wish of being better represented. It is not a secret; it is something we have been asking ourselves. But there wasn’t any secret agreement with the candidate, we decided to support him. Those who voted for him knows he is a person who speaks with everybody and who listens to everybody. He says what he thinks”.

The feminist organisations were disappointed, because they wanted a female candidate, but even they recognised that the Portuguese was very well prepared.

But who really is António Guterres?

He is 66 years old, married to Catarina Vaz Pinto, with two children from his previous marriage.

In our last article, published in The Goan Everyday, on September 28, we mentioned that he had been the leader of the Socialist Party, Prime Minister of Portugal and High Commissioner of the United Nations for Refugees.

His international career began in 2002. He was the Prime Minister of Portugal, and in that year the Socialist Party suffered a big defeat in the municipal elections. He decided to resign, considering he had lost the confidence of the people.

Many critics considered him a coward, since he was not obliged to resign. But Guterres said he could see people no longer supported him and so he had to be coherent.

Asked about his political future, he replied that he had no political ambitions for the future.

When he accepted the position of UN High Commissioner for Refugees, his argument was, “We will not save humanity, but we will do everything we are able to do”.

During his mandate, he consistently defended the rights of refugees, criticising those countries that shut their doors to the entry of outsiders who have no home.

In 2014, according to the United Nations, the number of refugees in the world had reached 50 million, the highest since the Second World War.

So, this problem will be one of the main issues he will handle in his new post.

It seems obvious that he will also have to deal with the problem of Syria, in the context of the Middle East and he will certainly be very interested in avoiding conflicts among the Member States of the United Nations.

One of the reasons for the election of Guterres is the conclusion that the United Nations deserves a more active leadership, as Ban Ki-moon has been very soft.

Kofi Annan, General Secretary between 1997 and 2007, was charismatic. The other thing that confused me was that Ban Ki-moon was too discreet. It is good to be discreet and cannot be used as a criticism. So, countries looked forward to a stronger candidate.

Guterres lost his first wife in the nineties. He had to educate his two young children.

In 2002, he married Catarina Vaz Pinto, who had been his Secretary of State for Culture.

Catarina was born in Goa, where her father was on duty as a military officer. She was born some months before Goa's liberation.

To a journalist who interviewed her and asked what Goa represented to her, she replied that she would very much like to come back to Goa, because although she had only lived in Goa for four months, her parents stimulated her memory through books, and Goan jewels, because for them their stay in Goa had really been important.

The journalist also asked: “Do you see Goa as your land?”

She replied: “I believe Goa is also my land. I am fascinated by the atmosphere, the smells, the colour, the exotic scenery, the signs of Portugal we see everywhere, like the churches, white in the middle of the green. The fact of being born in such a big country has a great impact on me. Although I have only been in Goa and Mumbai, I have a fascination for Goa."

Catarina visited Goa with Guterres and both were captivated.

As the new UN Secretary General Secretary, he will certainly come again.

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