Nickolay Mladenov floated as possible UN secretary-general
After a straw poll in the UN Security Council, each of the seven candidates has at least one veto. Diplomats are naming the former Bulgarian foreign minister.
Archive image · Photo: European People's Party / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (cropped and resized)
Bulgarian diplomat Nickolay Mladenov is being floated as a possible successor to UN Secretary-General António Guterres. BNT and the newspaper Sega reported this, citing the French news agency AFP. In the sixth informal straw poll in the UN Security Council, each of the seven candidates so far received at least one veto from a permanent member: the United States, Russia, China, France or Britain. That opens the way for new candidacies.
According to diplomats, Mladenov is among the names now being discussed. The 54-year-old was foreign minister in Boyko Borissov's first government from 2010 to 2013 and UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process from 2015 to 2020. Since January 2026, according to Sega, he has been high representative for Gaza on the so-called Board of Peace established by U.S. President Donald Trump. Lana Nusseibeh of the United Arab Emirates is mentioned as another possible name.
Before the secret vote, U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz said it was the sovereign right of states to nominate further candidates, according to Bulgarian National Radio. Guterres' term ends on Dec. 31.