Trump administration officials are pushing for the nomination of former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as UN secretary general, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
The newspaper reports that Orbán could be a joint candidate from the United States, Russia and China, and that sources in all three countries have confirmed that the Trump administration supports his candidacy.
Orbán lost power in Hungary’s April parliamentary elections, when Péter Magyar’s Tisza party defeated him after 16 years of absolute majority rule.
His far-right, fiercely anti-immigration and eurosceptic policies, as well as the rollback of the rule of law in Hungary, have strained relations with Western allies, notably the European Union and NATO. Orbán nevertheless maintained close ties with Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Since the elections, Hungarian authorities have launched fraud and corruption investigations against several members of Orbán’s former government. Two former ministers and the former governor of the National Bank of Hungary are under arrest, and authorities may also be looking into Orbán’s potential involvement in these matters.
According to the WSJ, no final decision has been made on this plan. A US State Department official admitted the idea seemed crazy at first, but said previous discussions with Washington suggested Russia and China also supported it. The goal is for Orbán to be the joint candidate of the three countries.
“If the United States, Russia and China want the same thing at the UN Security Council, they usually succeed,” officials from the United States and one other country told the newspaper. The second five-year term of the current Secretary-General, António Guterres, ends on December 31.
The White House, Moscow and Beijing have not confirmed the information.
Euronews contacted Orbán’s spokesperson for comment but has not yet received a response. The spokesperson previously dismissed press reports about Orbán’s candidacy for deputy secretary general as “fake news.”
In May, the investigative newsletter VSquare reported that a UN post could be important to the former prime minister because of the diplomatic immunity attached to the role.
According to the WSJ, Orbán would only run if his victory was assured, a scenario that currently seems unlikely. A candidate must gain the support of at least nine of the 15 members of the Security Council, while any of the five permanent members can veto the nomination. Besides the United States, Russia and China, France and the United Kingdom are also permanent members.
Gn world
