António Guterres was chosen by the United Nations Security Council to succeed to Ban-Ki-Moon as UN chief, starting of January 1st 2017. The decision of the UN Security Council was taken this Thursday, 6th of October, by acclamation, one day after the sixth pool in a row won by the former Prime-Minister of Portugal, this time without a single negative vote.

The Party of the European Left considers Mr. Guterres an exceptional man, moved by the right causes, and he is, without any doubt, the right person to face the hard challenges ahead of us, in particular the complex situation in the Middle East and the current refugee crisis. Last April, in an EL Executive Board meeting, in Porto, he was our guest, and we had the chance to testify exactly that.

Although we recognise it was time for a woman to take this job, we also recognise in António Guterres someone who always had gender equality on the top of his agenda and we believe and urge him to keep fighting for a more feminist world when exercising his functions as UN Secretary-General.

We now wish him the best of luck in the confirmation vote that still needs to be done by the U.N. General Assembly and hopefully in his future mandate as U.N. chief.