Orbán for UN Secretary-General: is this a joke?

HUNGARY - In Brief 27 Oct 2026 by Istvan Racz
Well, it sounds like one, but may be it is not. The news comes from a WSJ article published two days ago, and we regard WSJ as way more serious than just inventing fake stories of this kind. Anyway, the article reported about a distinct US push in background diplomacy, to bring together a joint US-Russia-China nomination of former PM Viktor Orbán for UN Secretary-General, as the incumbent SG's office term is set to expire at the end of this year.Polish PM Donald Tusk reacted to this news rather sarcastically, saying it is pretty entertaining that on the previous day, people were still gossiping that Mr. Orbán could become the next head of the EU Commission, an even bigger pile of nonsense. We could add here that Mr- Orbán's name also came up as a potential leader or deputy leader of FIFA, the world football (soccer) association.So, perhaps a more balanced statement came from a deputy foreign affairs minister of Russia, who said that neither of the US, Russia or China will nominate Mr. Orbán for the post. simply as they are permanent members of the UN Security Council, and even though they hold test votes on the upcoming candidates (probably to see if any member wants to veto a candidate, we would think), it is not their role to find a replacement for the outgoing SG. He added that there exists an unofficial principle of regional rotation within the UN, on the basis of which the next Secretary-General should come from South-America or the Caribbean. (Maybe this is why four of the currently standing six candidates have been nominated from that region.) But even so, any member country from any part of the world would be still free to nominate Mr. Orbán at this point (we a...

Now read on...

Register to sample a report

Register
Must have at least 8 characters
Sign-in
Forgot your password?
Copyright 2026 GlobalSource Partners. All rights reserved. This is prepared for GlobalSource Partners’ clients and may not be redistributed, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, retransmitted or disclosed, in whole or in part, or in any form or manner, without the express written consent of GlobalSource Partners. This is distributed simultaneously to our website and other portals used by GlobalSource Partners. The information herein was obtained from various sources and is believed to be reliable but GlobalSource Partners does not warrant its completeness or accuracy. Neither GlobalSource Partners nor any Country Analyst, officer or employee accepts any liability whatsoever for any direct, indirect or consequential damages or losses rising from any use of this or its contents.