Four candidates battle it out to lead embattled UN

• AFP, UNITED NATIONS

Four contenders are squaring up to succeed Antonio Guterres as secretary-general of the UN, which faces unprecedented global instability, wars and its own crushing budget crisis.

Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan and Senegal’s Macky Sall are each to face grillings by 193 member states and non-governmental organizations for three hours today and tomorrow.

It is only the second time the UN has held a public question-and-answer, a format created in 2016 to boost transparency. Ultimately the five permanent members of the UN’s top body, the Security Council, hold the power, wielding vetoes over who leads the global organization as its secretary-general.

US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz has warned the next UN head must align with “American values and interests,” and that Washington would back the best candidate — not necessarily a Latin American woman, as some countries are demanding.

All four candidates to take over the embattled UN when Guterres departs on Dec. 31 pledge to grow trust in the bitterly divided organization that faces financial Armageddon because of Washington’s refusal to pay its bills.

Here is a look at the contenders:

She went on to be the UN rights chief, a sensitive role in which she alienated some countries, especially China, which mauled her for reporting on alleged abuses of the Uighur people.

Bachelet, 74, has said that she is “convinced” she has the experience “to confront a moment” marked by unprecedented crises and conflicts. She is backed by Mexico and Brazil — but Chile withdrew its backing after far-right President Jose Antonio Kast took office last month.

Grossi has called for the UN to “return to its founding promise — to save humanity from the scourge of war.”

‧ Rebeca Grynspan — Less well-known than her opponents, the former Costa Rican vice president leads the UN trade and development body UNCTAD, pulling off a diplomatic feat by brokering the Black Sea Grain Initiative between Moscow and Kyiv to allow grain exports following Russia’s invasion. In her pitch to world leaders, the 70-year-old plays up her personal story as the daughter of Jewish parents.

Grynspan said they “barely survived” the Holocaust before emigrating to Costa Rica, stressing her attachment to the UN Charter, calling the document signed as World War II came to an end a “standing warning against the perils of dehumanization, distrust and fragmentation.”

He said peace can never be “sustainable” if development is undermined “by poverty, inequality, exclusion and climate vulnerability.” Proposed by Burundi, the current chair of the African Union, Sall is supported neither by the regional African bloc — 20 of its 55 members oppose him — nor by his own country. Senegalese authorities accuse him of bloodily repressing violent political demonstrations that left dozens dead between 2021 and 2024.