Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, has ruled herself out of the race to secure a top job in Europe next year, saying she wanted to focus on her current job rather than lead either the European Commission or the European Central Bank.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Ms Lagarde said she was a “bit annoyed and fed up” with the frenzied speculation around the successors to Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the commission, and Mario Draghi, the ECB president — “where you are one of the potentials . . . and supported by so and so”.
“No, no, no no, no no . . . I am not interested in any of the European — ECB, commission, da da da da da — jobs, no,” Ms Lagarde said. “I have a very important job here that I want to do and I’m not going to leave that beautiful vessel when there might be rough waters out there.”
Europe is preparing for a comprehensive reshuffle of its top jobs next year, which may see new presidents appointed at almost all the main EU institutions.
As speculation has mounted in Brussels, Ms Lagarde had been tipped as a possible contender to either replace Mr Juncker or Mr Draghi, even though she has no central banking experience.
Ms Lagarde’s champions see her as an accomplished, level-headed politician with a proven record of managing big institutions and cutting deals at the highest levels of EU politics. She would also be the first woman appointed to head the commission or the ECB.
During her time as French finance minister and as IMF chief, Ms Lagarde built a close relationship with Angela Merkel, and was asked by the German chancellor in 2014 whether she would be interested in the commission job, said people familiar with the conversation.
But this time around EU officials and diplomats have doubted whether Ms Lagarde, who served in the centre-right government of Nicolas Sarkozy, would secure the political support of French president Emmanuel Macron.
The race for the commission is pitting Manfred Weber, the head of the centre-right European People’s party, against potential rivals such as Alex Stubb, the former Finnish prime minister, and Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator.
In the race for the ECB post, two Frenchmen are leading contenders. One is Benoît Coeuré, a member of the ECB’s executive board, and the other is François Villeroy de Galhau, the governor of the Bank of France. But other candidates are also in the fray, including Klaas Knot, the president of the central bank of the Netherlands, and Philip Lane, president of Ireland’s central bank.
Ms Lagarde has led the IMF since 2011, replacing Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and was elected to a second term in 2016. Under her tenure the IMF has grappled with the eurozone debt crisis, including Greece, but it is facing a new flare-up in financial risk in emerging markets, particularly in Argentina and Turkey, just as the US is tightening monetary policy and ramping up a trade war with China.
