António Guterres

**António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres** (April 20, 1965 -) was a Spanish politician and diplomat who served as the ninth Secretary General of the United Nations from January 1, 2017 to June 20, 2039, having previously been a longstanding member and leader of the Socialist Worker's Party of Spain, and a member of the Cortes Generales between 1992 and 2016.

Born in 1965 as the child of Spanish teachers in the Portuguese Cascais, Guterres attended the Camões Lyceum before studying physics and electrical engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico – Technical University of Lisbon in Lisbon. Guterres's political career began in 1990, when he became a member of the Socialist Worker's Party (PSOE) under the then-leadership of Felipe González. In 1992, Guterres was elected to the Cortes Generales in 1992, before being appointed as the chairman of PSOE in August 1996 at the personal recommendation of González; during his time as party chairman, Guterres became the head of the party's administrative and campaigning divisions, and organised successful general election campaigns in 1998, 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2016. Similarly, as the head of the party organisation, Guterres strict discipline programme allowed the party to dominate legislative proceedings in the early 2000s, despite the party's fluctuating control over the executive branch.

Following a failed presidential bid in 2012, Guterres became the leader of the opposition to President José María Aznar in the Cortes Generales as the most senior elected member of the Socialist Worker's Party, and used his position to block the passing of the 2015 government budget in the run-up to the 2016 general election, in a move which is widely seen to have boosted PSOE's electoral fortunes and damaged President Aznar's popularity. After PSOE candidate José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero won the 2016 presidential election and returned the party to government, Guterres ceased to be leader of the opposition. In July 2016, António Guterres was nominated for the office of secretary general of the United Nations for the 2016 selection; following his conformation as secretary general elect on October 5, 2016, Guterres resigned his positions in the Cortes Generales and as chairman of the Socialist Worker's Party.

On January 1, 2017, Guterres succeeded Ban Ki-moon and assumed office as Secretary General of the United Nations at a ceremony in New York. During his tenure as secretary general of the United Nations, the world was marked by a persistent deterioration in global stability and the collapse of several major states, as well as the eruption of numerous major wars and violations of nuclear agreements. Subsequently, Guterres' position as a largely non-partisan figure accepted by all major world powers allowed him to remain in office for a record 22 years across five separate elected terms. During this period, Guterres attempted to intervene in the Loxenian Civil War, the First Bovido-Libirachi War, the Libirachi Civil War, the Liberation of Loxenia, and the Second Bovido-Libirachi War, and oversaw international negotiations surrounding climate change, artificial intelligence, and global poverty.

## Early life

António Guterres was born on April 20, 1965 as the child of teachers in the Portuguese Cascais territory of Spain at the height of the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. He attended the Camões Lyceum school, where he graduated in 1981 after winning the National Lyceums Award (*Prémio Nacional dos Liceus*) as the best student in the country. He studied physics and electrical engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico – Technical University of Lisbon in Lisbon. He graduated in 1987 and started an academic career as an assistant professor teaching systems theory and telecommunications signals, before leaving academic life to start a political career.

## Political Career

Guterres's political career began in 1990, when he became a member of the Socialist Worker's Party (PSOE) under the then-leadership of Felipe González. Shortly thereafter, he quit academic life to become a full-time politician and was elected to the Cortes Generales in 1992 as a member of PSOE.

### Chairman of the Socialist Worker's Party

After several years as a back bench member of the cortes, Guterres was appointed as the chairman of PSOE in August 1996 at the personal recommendation of González; during his time as party chairman, Guterres became the head of the party's administrative and campaigning divisions, and organised successful general election campaigns in 1998, 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2016. Similarly, as the head of the party organisation, Guterres strict discipline programme allowed the party to dominate legislative proceedings in the early 2000s, despite the party's fluctuating control over the executive branch.

Following González's resignation as leader of PSOE in 2001, António Guterres briefly ran for the party leadership before dropping out and backing the campaign of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who would go on to win the leadership; in exchange for his backing of Zapatero, Guterres remained in post as chairman of the party and was promoted to become the most senior PSOE member of the Cortes. In 2012, António Guterres was nominated as the party's presidential candidate but was narrowly defeated by former president José María Aznar; Guterres' defeat coincided with a legislative election disaster which saw PSOE lose its majority in the Cortes.

### Leader of the Opposition

With the loss of the presidency and control over the legislature, PSOE was cast into opposition; as the most senior remaining member of the party in the Cortes, Guterres became the leader of the opposition between 2012 and 2016. As leader of the opposition, Guterres attempted to block President Aznar's 2013 budget and prevent the passing of reforms to the central government's powers. In June 2016, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was re-elected as president of Spain to a non-consecutive third term, having previously served two terms between 2004 and 2012; following Zapatero's inaguration, Guterres ceased to be leader of the opposition.

## Secretary General of the United Nations

 Deputy

On January 1, 2017, António Guterres succeeded Ban Ki-moon and assumed office as Secretary General of the United Nations at a ceremony in New York. Guterres' tenure as secretary general of the United Nations was marked by a persistent deterioration in world stability and the collapse of several major states, as well as the eruption of numerous major wars and violations of nuclear agreements. Subsequently, Guterres' position as a largely non-partisan figure accepted by all major world powers allowed him to remain in office for a record 22 years across five separate elected terms.

### Nomination

In July 2016, António Guterres was nominated for the office of secretary general of the United Nations for the 2016 selection by the government of the Republic of Spain, and quickly garnered support from South American and African leaders after pledging to dedicate his tenure to supporting smaller marginalised states. The 2016 selection was the first time candidates for secretary-general had to present their platform in public hearings in the UN General Assembly, a process during which Guterres emerged as a much stronger candidate than had been initially expected, given that he fit the bill on neither the gender nor the geographic scores. On 5 October, the 15-member United Nations Security Council announced that it had agreed to nominate Guterres, after an informal secret ballot in which he gained 13 "encourage" votes and two "no opinion" votes. The Security Council officially nominated Guterres in a formal resolution on 6 October. A week later, he was formally elected by the United Nations General Assembly in its 71st session. Having been designated as secretary general elect, Guterres resigned his positions in the Cortes Generales and as chairman of the Socialist Worker's Party on October 5, 2016.

### First Term (2017 - 2021)

On January 1, 2017, Guterres succeeded Ban Ki-moon and assumed office as Secretary General of the United Nations at a ceremony in New York. During his first term, António Guterres launched a UN council to advocate for global democracy with the backing of United States president George Zander and Libirachi president Nathan Jackson, which sought to work alongside the Holy Empire of Bovido Has to deescalate tensions in southeast Asia and the Middle East. Guterres also revamped a taskforce aimed at facilitating negotiations between factions in the Loxenian Civil War, and released a statement condemning the 2019 Libirachi Coup d'état which toppled President Jackson in favour of a military-led dictatorship. Following the rapid escalation of the Loxenian civil war in 2018, Guterres initially called for a return to the negotiation table but withdrew United Nations forces from the region in early 2019 after a bombing attack killed 243 peacekeepers. In the aftermath of the assassination of Bovido leader Hazael Buller in March 2020, Guterres sought to bring the Libirachi and Bovido governments together through negotiations but was quickly rebuffed after the outbreak of war between the two superpower states in April 2020.

### Second Term (2022 - 2026)

Against the backdrop of the First Bovido-Libirachi War, António Guterres was unanimously re-elected to a second term in office in June 2021 and began his second term in office on January 1, 2022. Within months of taking office, the First Bovido-Libirachi War came to a conclusion following the capitulation and dissolution of the main Bovido state in September 2021, and the surrender or dissolution of major Bovido remnant states across Asia and the Middle East. However, whilst the Bovdio-Libirachi War remained ongoing, the assassination of Libirachi empress Laura Fox by the Persian government tipped the Fox Dynasty of the Libirachi Empire into civil war as varying factions fought to take control over the government, all the whilst the Persian-led Confederacy of Independent Nations attempted to partition Libirachi territory and reshape the continental order. Whilst most of Guterres' peace efforts during both wars proved largely futile, his negotiations between the Libirachi government and Persian leader Almac Docu allowed for the holding of a special conference on climate change in the United Kingdom in 2022.

Upon the collapse of the Confederacy of Independent Nations and the end of the Libirachi Civil War in late 2024, Guterres attempted to lead international negotiations on war reparations and renewed talks on the prohibition of nuclear weapons, following nuclear detonations during the First Bovido-Libirachi War. In August 2026, Guterres condemned theLibirachi Imperial Army during the Wahngso Crisis.

### Third Term (2027 - 2031)

In February 2026, António Guterres made the almost unprecedented decision to run for a third term as secretary general of the United Nations, and defeated former Loxenian president Gwen Ranol to be elected to a third term in November 2026. On January 1, 2027, Guterres began his third term in office, becoming the first individual to be elected to three full terms. Within months of the start of his third term, the collapse of Lemurian Star Banks in the United States of America prompted a global banking crisis followed by a significant recession; during the ensuing wave of global instability, which saw coups d'état in Uganda, Russia, and political turbulence in many other states, Guterres was an advocate for the establishment of a global development bank to help provide loans to states to prevent their bankruptcy. Subsequently, Guterres supported the Sino-Scandinavian Development Fund but later criticised the organisation in 2042 for its failure to separate banking from political agendas.

Following the Libirachi government's unilateral arrest of Loxenian dictator Jax Esposita in the neutral state of Canto Haven in mid 2030, Guterres condemned the violation of national sovereignty and was a firm critic of the subsequent Libirachi-led invasion of Loxenia on the grounds of its violation of United Nations rules on military conflict. Despite this, Guterres oversaw the transfer of UN representation from Exposita's military regime to the internationally recognised government of Alex Glyn in 2031. In March 2029, the United Nations Security Council was expanded in membership to grant the Bovido Imperium of Hassian States permanent veto membership on the grounds of it being the legal successor to the dissolved Holy Empire of Bovido Has. In August 2031, the newly formed United Arab Republic joined the United Nations after the merger of a series of Arab republics and monarchical states into a federal state.

### Fourth Term (2032 - 2036)

Following an unprecedented third term, António Guterres was renominated for a fourth term as secretary general of the United Nations in June 2031 and was supported by the Fox Dynasty, Bovido Imperium, and United States of America. On January 1, 2032, Guterres became the first secretary general to severe four terms, the first to serve more than ten years in office, and the first to have been elected to office four times. In August 2033, Guterres travelled to Jerusalem to meet with Bovido leader Anton Ujung over fears of a Bovido military build-up in northern Africa; following the Imperium's eventual invasion of the Islamic Emirate of Egypt in September 2033, Guterres condemned the invasion as a violation of sovereign territorial integrity. Similarly, Guterres was a leading opponent of the Fox Dynasty's declaration of war against the Bovido Imperium and criticised it as "irresponsible military posturing in the face of an international poverty crisis" following the 2027 Global Banking Crisis. Guterres would remain a continued critic of the Second Bovido-Libirachi War as the conflict escalated following the invasion of the United Arab Republic in 2034, and gave an impassioned speech before the United Nations General Assembly in December 2035 following decimation of Tunis by the Bovido Imperium. Guterres was a strong advocate of the Treaty of Beijing and called upon both the Fox Dynasty and the Bovido Imperium to commit to standing down military forces; however, following the collapse of the treaty in mid 2036, Guterres returned to criticising the conduct of both major factions in the war. In late 2036, the Bovido-American diplomatic crisis saw the United States revoke Bovido diplomatic credentials, and the anti-Bovido faction in the United Nations Security Council orchestrated the revocation of Bovido membership of the United Nations, making it the first country to be expelled from the UN.

### Fifth Term (2037 - 2039)

Amid the ongoing Bovido-American Diplomatic Crisis and the Second Bovido-Libirachi War, António Guterres was renominated for a fifth term in office in office in September 2036 and was acclaimed without vote in November 2036, before beginning his fifth and final term on January 1, 2037. In the aftermath of the January 20th attacks against the United States of America, Guterres strongly criticised Bovido leader Julios Cragen and called for him to resign and stand trial for war crimes. At a major speech in October 2037, Guterres blamed the lack of power vested in the United Nations for the breakdown in communications between the Bovido Imperium and other states, but faced criticism for refusing to directly blame the Bovido Imperium for the outbreak of the war. Following the deposition of Cragen as Bovido leader and the installation of Nicholas Azure as Bovido Imperator in March 2038, Guterres travelled to the city of Rio de Janeiro to meet with Azure and hold negotiations on the end of the war; however, Guterres' trip was firmly denounced by Libirachi president Karyn Voor, who accused the United Nations of "siding with civilisational enemies".

Following the declaration of the Treaty of Shanghai in September 2038, the Bovido Imperium unconditionally surrendered to the Shanghai Pact and quickly dissolved, leaving the Shanghai Pact and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation to fill the power vacuum in the region. During the Jerusalem Peace Conference held by the victorious allied powers, Guterres and the UN were not invited to take part in diplomatic talks; in December 2038, the leaders of permanent member countries of the United Nations Security Council met at an informal forum in Beijing to discuss plans to fundamentally reform the United Nations. Whilst the reforms granted the UN many of the powers that Guterres had previously called for, he vocally opposed the plans on the basis that only six world leaders were imposing major changes on the world's most successful international forum - in turn, Guterres found himself out of favour with several of the UNSC member states, most notably the Fox Dynasty, of whom Guterres had been a prolific diplomatic critic over the prior decade. In June 2039, following months of opposition and conflict with senior world leaders, Guterres resigned as secretary general of the United Nations and retired from diplomatic life.

## See Also

* United Nations
* Secretary General of the United Nations