The Argentine Rafael Grossi has gained support again in the race to become the next Secretary-General of the United Nations and is just two votes away from reaching first place.
The diplomat received eight favorable votes in the fourth informal consultation held among the members of the Security Council and ranked third among the evaluated candidates.
This result represents a recovery for Grossi, who had received five supports in the previous round. In this new instance, he received eight votes of “encouragement,” seven of “discouragement,” and none “without opinion,” thus adding three endorsements compared to the consultation on September 18.
In this way, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has once again positioned himself among the three candidates with the highest number of favorable votes, a position he had already reached in the second survey conducted on August 21.
Rafael Grossi
The candidate who received the most support was the leftist Rebeca Grynspan from Costa Rica, with 10 favorable votes, three negative, and two without opinion. In second place was another progressive, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett from Guyana, with eight votes in favor, six against, and one without opinion.
Grossi received the same number of supports as Rodrigues-Birkett, although he received one more negative vote, placing him third in this fourth informal consultation.
Behind the top three were Olara Otunnu from Uganda, with five favorable votes, eight negative, and two without opinion, and former Senegalese President Macky Sall, who received five endorsements, nine rejections, and one vote without opinion.
Grossi's improvement is particularly significant compared to the third round. On that occasion, he had obtained five favorable votes, eight negative, and two without opinion. Now he has managed to increase his support and reduce the rejections.
Rafael Grossi
The Argentine Candidate
The Argentine diplomat is 65 years old, has over four decades of diplomatic experience, and has been at the helm of the IAEA since 2019. In recent years, he has increased his international prominence through his involvement in issues related to nuclear security, including conflicts and negotiations linked to Russia, Ukraine, and Iran.
Grossi's candidacy for the Secretary-General of the United Nations was formalized by Argentina at the end of 2025.
However, the consultations conducted by the Security Council do not yet constitute a formal election. For a candidate to advance, the body must reach an agreement and subsequently recommend a name to the United Nations General Assembly.
The candidate who advances needs to gather at least nine favorable votes and, in addition, not receive a veto from any of the five permanent members of the Security Council: United States, China, Russia, France, and United Kingdom.
The next Secretary-General will replace the Portuguese António Guterres, whose second term ends in late 2026. The new head of the United Nations will take office on January 1, 2027, for a five-year term.
