António Guterres
António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres GCC GCL (/ɡʊˈtɛrəs/ ⓘ, European Portuguese: [ɐ̃ˈtɔnju ɣuˈtɛʁɨʃ] ⓘ; born 30 April 1949)[1] is a Portuguese politician and diplomat. Since 2017, he has served as secretary-general of the United Nations, the ninth person to hold this title. A member of the Portuguese Socialist Party, Guterres served as prime minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002.
In this Portuguese name, the first or maternal family name is Oliveira and the second or paternal family name is Guterres.
António Guterres
- Kofi Annan
- Ban Ki-moon
Jorge Sampaio
Aníbal Cavaco Silva
Jorge Sampaio
-
Luísa Guimarães e Melo(m. 1972; died 1998)
2
Guterres served as secretary-general of the Socialist Party from 1992 to 2002. He was elected prime minister in 1995 and announced his resignation in 2002, after his party was defeated in the 2001 Portuguese local elections. After six years governing without an absolute majority and with a poor economy, the Socialist Party did worse than expected because of losses in Lisbon and Porto, where polls indicated they had a solid lead. Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues assumed the Socialist Party leadership in January 2002, but Guterres would remain as prime minister until the general election was lost to the Social Democratic Party, led by José Manuel Barroso. Despite this defeat, polling of the Portuguese public in both 2012 and 2014 ranked Guterres the best prime minister of the previous 30 years.[2][3]
He served as president of the Socialist International from 1999 to 2005, and was the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from 2005 to 2015.[4] Guterres was elected secretary-general in October 2016, succeeding Ban Ki-moon at the beginning of the following year and becoming the first European to hold this office since Kurt Waldheim in 1981.
Early life, education, and early career[edit]
Guterres was born in Parede and raised in Lisbon, Portugal, the son of Virgílio Dias Guterres (1913–2009) and Ilda Cândida dos Reis Oliveira Guterres (1923–2021).[5]
He attended the Camões Lyceum (now Camões Secondary School), where he graduated in 1965, 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 1971 and started an academic career as an assistant professor teaching systems theory and telecommunications signals, before leaving academic life to start a political career.[6] During his university years, he joined the Group of Light, a club for young Catholics, where he met Father Vítor Melícias, a prominent Franciscan priest and church administrator who remains a close friend and confidant.[7]
Personal life[edit]
In 1972, Guterres married child psychiatrist[7] Luísa Amélia Guimarães e Melo, with whom he had two children, Pedro Guimarães e Melo Guterres (born 1977) and Mariana Guimarães e Melo de Oliveira Guterres (born 1985). His wife died of cancer at the Royal Free Hospital in London in 1998 at the age of 51.[14][114][115]
In 2001, Guterres married Catarina Marques de Almeida Vaz Pinto (born 1960),[116] a former Portuguese state secretary for culture and culture secretary for the City Council of Lisbon.[117][118]
In addition to his native Portuguese, Guterres speaks English, French, and Spanish.[119]
Guterres is a practicing Catholic.[115]
