Michelle Bachelet, the former president of Chile and now a candidate for the post of UN Secretary-General, said Tuesday that she hopes the world is "finally ready" to give the post to a woman.
Since the UN's founding after World War II, all nine of its secretaries-general have been men; several countries have advocated for a woman to take the post in recent years.
In 2016, although there were female candidates, it was Portuguese diplomat Antonio Guterres who was elected.
"If I wanted to be polite, I would say the world was not ready. Is it ready now? I hope so," Bachelet, 74, told reporters after a three-hour hearing with representatives of member states present.
"It would be a very good omen, it would give hope to many people," she added.
She also referred to the need for the next Secretary-General to be “on the ground” and be someone with a “moral voice” and the ability to “speak his mind” even when under pressure from powerful member states.
Since distrust of the UN is most often due to, or reflected in, the paralysis of the Security Council on many pressing issues, he acknowledged that there is no “magic formula” that would change the situation overnight.
For some reason, “I don’t have a magic potion to give to member states, especially the five permanent members of the Security Council) to “make them all friends,” she characteristically said.
Asked what she believes makes her the best candidate to succeed Antonio Guterres on January 1, 2027, Michelle Bachelet highlighted her “excellent experience.” But “don’t talk to me about my age,” she said.
Another candidate for the position, Mariano Grossi, the Argentine diplomat who also presented his candidacy yesterday, also stressed the need for the next Secretary-General to act "truly" on the ground and recalled his commitment to this in his current role: he is currently the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
"I hope that we will emerge and I hope that I will be a Secretary-General who will not only take a stand, but will act and be part of solving the problems related to the use of violence in international relations," he noted, while some criticize Antonio Guterres for not being actively involved in projects aimed, above all, at ending the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Two other candidacies, that of Rebecca Greenspan (Costa Rica) and that of Macky Sall (Senegal), will be considered by member states today. This is still the first phase of the process that will determine who or what will take on what the president of the UN General Assembly, German diplomat Annalena Berbock, describes as “one of the most difficult jobs in the world.”
