Viktor Orbán for the United Nations?

News that the Trump administration has been advocating for Viktor Orbán as the next secretary-general of the United Nations is a crackerjack scoop from the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page. It reports that Russia and China “are believed to be supportive” of the idea, “based on prior conversations with Washington, and the plan would be for Mr. Orbán to be their joint candidate.” We are inclined to focus on the virtues of the plan.Its key virtue is that something might get done about the Security Council. Currently the setup gives America, Russia, Communist China, Britain, and France the power of veto. The arrangement reported by the Journal wouldn’t change that. The Journal notes negative aspects of Mr. Orban’s record, particularly his closeness to Russia. Yet Mr. Orban, despite his flaws, would bring to the council a figure who lacks Europe’s bigotry against Israel.When the International Criminal Court issued a warrant in respect of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr. Orban reacted by welcoming the Israeli leader to Hungary for a visit, refused to act on the warrant, and quit the ICC, a move that Budapest later reversed. Herb Keinon of the Jerusalem Post reckons that Mr. Orban “may have been an ultra-nationalist. He may have been anti-immigration. He may have been illiberal. But he had Israel’s back. Repeatedly.”That strikes us as the kind of person who is needed at the UN. No doubt there are questions, including what France and Britain, the last two veto-holders, might think. Our man at the UN, Benny Avni, tells us that the world body puts a premium on regional rotation. Coming up it is Latin America’s turn. There has yet to be, Mr. Avni reminds us, a secretary-general from the former Soviet bloc. Such a rotation, though, isn’t in the UN Charter. Another demand is for the first woman. In 2016, several women ran only to lose at the last moment to Mr. Guterres. In any event, the Journal’s editorial reminds, President Trump endorsed Mr. Orban in the Hungarian general election. Vice President Vance campaigned for him. The Journal quotes a State Department official as counting eight Security Council votes as “comfortably” for Mr. Orban and 10 within reach from a total of 15.The Journal’s editorial reports that as American officials discussed whom “they would want to see atop the U.N., Mr. Orbán’s name kept coming up. ‘Someone like Orbán,’ they would say, and Chinese and Russian counterparts would agree. Eventually U.S. officials asked themselves the question: Why not Mr. Orbán?” One unnamed American official has called Mr. Orban “the dream MAGA-conservative candidate.”More broadly, we see the idea of nominating Mr. Orban as a kind of marker of the Trump administration’s unfinished business. That was declaring the goal of reform and starting the work. We thought that Mr. Trump had — and think he still has — what it takes for the task. So far, though, Mr. Trump failed to get going, as he enjoyed the temptations of diplomacy. A figure like Mr. Orban could start to redeem the hope of reform.

Viktor Orbán for the United Nations?

Viktor Orbán for the United Nations?

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