The French did it again. By recalling Christine Lagarde, who has served as managing director of the International Monetary Fund since 2011, from Washington and throwing her into the race to succeed Mario Draghi as head of the European Central Bank, French President Emanuel Macron effectively won the real power game in the competition for the top European positions after the May elections for the European Parliament. But since Macron helped nominate, in a big surprise, Ursula von der Leyen, the Brussels-born francophone long-time member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government, to lead the new EU Commission, the disappointment in Germany of not seeing Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann chosen as Draghi’s successor may have been somewhat mitigated.
Leave a Reply