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According to Reuters:

Castro holds the record for the longest speech ever delivered to the United Nations: 4 hours and 29 minutes, on Sept. 26, 1960, according to the U.N. website. One of his longest speeches on record lasted 7 hours and 30 minutes on Feb. 24, 1998, after the national assembly re-elected him to a five-year term as president.

(The first part of the claim needs to be amended with the fact that it's the longest UNGA speech. At the UNSC there was a considerably longer intervention by an Indian representative, probably intended to delay/filibuster a decision, while "facts on the ground" were being established in Kashmir.)

Anyhow, my question is about the 2nd part of that paragraph. Is the 7.5-hours reelection speech a record in that category, if we restrict ourselves to heads of state/government? (You can include fist-time acceptance/victory speeches, if you think that would yield a different answer.)

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    Chavez 9 1/2 hours. bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-01-16/…
    – Rick Smith
    Commented Aug 10, 2022 at 18:44
  • @RickSmith: you can make it an answer...
    – got trolled too much this week
    Commented Aug 10, 2022 at 18:45
  • Bloomberg wants me register. I won't. Feel free to use it as a self-answer. Could also use the head-of-state tag.
    – Rick Smith
    Commented Aug 10, 2022 at 18:57
  • @RickSmith No need to register, just skip that registration dialog.
    – convert
    Commented Aug 10, 2022 at 19:52
  • Fact check? Longest UN speech: The longest speech ever given to the UN was delivered in 1957 by the Indian politician VK Krishna Menon, who talked for nearly eight hours while defending India's position on Kashmir. Also, ask.un.org/faq/37127 which mentions both Menon and Castro.
    – Rick Smith
    Commented Aug 11, 2022 at 14:41

1 Answer 1

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The longest speach seems to be Nutuk by Atatürk. The speach was from 15 to 20 October 1927 and took thirty-six hours (on a 6 day span) to be read by Atatürk.

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  • Is that a re-election speech, though? From reading the articles on Ataturk, it doesn't sound like Turkey even had elections at that time.
    – F1Krazy
    Commented Aug 10, 2022 at 21:45
  • @F1Krazy So you was only asking about re-election speeches?
    – convert
    Commented Aug 10, 2022 at 22:10
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    It's not my question, but yes, the question is specifically asking for the longest re-election speech.
    – F1Krazy
    Commented Aug 10, 2022 at 22:24
  • @F1Krazy: there was actually a general election that year (1927), but Nutuk was a party congress speech. It might be "distinction without a difference" since there was apparently only one party standing in that 1927 election. (I think the president wasn't being directly elected back then though. But I'm also not sure if Ataturk's position within the party was subjected to intra-party elections, ever.)
    – got trolled too much this week
    Commented Aug 11, 2022 at 8:02
  • One of the ironies of this is that Ataturk apparently gave very few public speeches otherwise, being quite radio-shy lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v30/n17/perry-anderson/kemalism
    – got trolled too much this week
    Commented Aug 11, 2022 at 8:35

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