Croatian candidate for UN Secretary General presents her manifesto.
A debate of candidates for the United Nation Secretary General took place on Tuesday evening at the UN headquarters in New York. One of the participants was former Croatian Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Vesna Pusić, reports Večernji List on July 13, 2016.
Candidates were first introduced at the start of a three-hour debate, and then they were asked all kinds of questions – from why they wanted the job to the issue of climate change. Hungarian Ambassador to the UN asked the first question from the audience, and it was directed to Vesna Pusić. Asked what style of leadership was needed for the UN and the world, Pusić replied that the criteria had been lowered in the last 20 years. “Phrases and lack of accountability are currently very popular. And I believe that we do not want leadership that is based on platitudes and on speaking only what people want to hear. The vision, persistence and courage are needed in today’s leaders”, said Pusić.
Her statement about the need to strengthen the position of women in public office, including in the United Nations, received a big round of applause. “I am not only a woman, I am a feminist. UN has been for seventy years dominated by the male worldview, but that is only 50 percent of life experience, and now it is time for the other 50 percent”, she noted.
The term of the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is concluding two consecutive five-year terms, will end at the end of 2016. In September, the Security Council will propose to the General Assembly a name of one candidate. Pusić has been nominated for the post by the outgoing government of Zoran Milanović, but she had not later gained the support of HDZ and MOST.
The successor of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon should be known in September.
