The Ecuadorian poet vying to lead the UN — if she can just win over Xi, Putin and Trump

María Fernanda Espinosa talks to Isabel Coles about her plan to succeed António Guterres and why the US president's Board of Peace is no competition

- Isabel Coles

How do you approach a job application when the interview panel is made up of Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Donald Trump?

That is the challenge facing María Fernanda Espinosa and four other candidates vying to become the next secretary general of the United Nations. To secure the role of the world’s top diplomat, they must win over the five permanent members (P5) of the UN security council — Russia, the US, China, Britain and France — who are on opposite sides of many crises, from the war in Iran to Gaza and Ukraine.

That leaves only a narrow path to the top of an organisation that is itself facing a crisis of credibility — and liquidity — at a time of profound global upheaval.

In an interview with The Observer days after declaring her candidacy, Espinosa, a poet and formerly Ecuador’s minister of foreign affairs, played down the challenge of navigating the competing interests of the big powers, reflecting the tightrope she must walk.

“This is not a campaign. This is not a popular vote,” she said. “It is a selection process. And you have to have the qualifications to be fit for purpose, to have clarity in your vision, to be very frank about what are the margins of your oxygen to operate, what are your qualities as a strong leader, as a transformative leader, and yet knowledgeable about how the system operates.”

The other candidates are Chile’s ex-president Michelle Bachelet; the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi; former Senegalese president Macky Sall; and Rebeca Grynspan, former vice-president of Costa Rica.

Within the UN, however, diplomats are already considering what to do if the P5 can’t agree on a replacement for Antonio Guterres by the end of the year, including the possibility of leaving the post temporarily vacant.