UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned world leaders on Tuesday of the risk of “a winter of global discontent” due to the multiple crises affecting humanity, from the war in Ukraine to the impacts of global warming.
“The crisis of purchasing power is unleashed, confidence crumbles, inequalities explode, our planet burns”, and despite everything “we are blocked by a colossal global dysfunction”, declared Antonio Guterres at the inauguration of the annual high-level week of the United Nations General Assembly.
“We can’t go on like this”
“These crises threaten the very future of humanity and the fate of the planet,” he said. “Let us have no illusions. We are in rough seas. A winter of global discontent looms on the horizon.”
Despite these dangers, the international community is “paralyzed”, lamented the secretary general, describing “a threat of dangerous divisions between the West and the South”.
“Geopolitical divisions undermine the work of the Security Council, they undermine international law, they undermine people’s trust and faith in democratic institutions,” he said. “We can’t go on like this.”
Emmanuel Macron expected at 8 pm
After the Secretary General, for several days, dozens of Heads of State and Government from around the world will intervene in this annual diplomatic mass that resumes in person after two years disrupted by Covid-19. Emmanuel Macron is due to speak this Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. French time.
Traditionally, this first day gives a privileged place to the speech of the American president who, as leader of the country that hosts the headquarters of the United Nations, pronounces the first. But exceptionally -as on very few occasions in the past- it will not be like that: Joe Biden, who was at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II on Monday, postponed his intervention for Wednesday.
Source: BFM TV
