In Brussels, France and Berlin negotiate behind the scenes to prepare the succession of Christine Lagarde

Paris and Berlin are busy in the corridors of Brussels. The two countries are trying to weigh in on the debate to choose Christine Lagarde's successor as president of the European Central Bank. At the end of October, the Frenchwoman announced her early departure, effective from February 7, at the same time launching a race against time to replace her.

According to corroborating sources, Emmanuel Macron would indeed like to influence the choice of the future president to prevent the National Rally, leading the polls for the presidential election, from having a say in the event of an election in 2027. The timetable remains tight because a whole series of formal steps provided for by the European treaties must be completed: recommendation of a name by the Eurogroup, then consultation of the European Parliament and the Governing Council of the ECB, who will give their opinions before the decision final meeting of heads of state and government. Two solid applications The first stage has already been launched, with the completion last week of the search for candidates.

“We have received two excellent applications,” underlined Monday the president of this euro zone coordination body, Greek Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis. They are Klaas Knot, 59, head of the Dutch Central Bank from 2011 to 2025, and Pablo Hernandez de Cos, 55, who chaired the Bank of Spain from 2018 to 2024, and since last year has headed the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), a prestigious financial body based in Basel, Switzerland. Two leaders with solid backgrounds and who know the workings of the ECB perfectly, having represented their country there for years.

But beyond their economic and financial expertise, it is above all their ability to communicate clearly with the financial markets that will weigh in the balance. Several positions at stake Faced with these two clients, Emmanuel Macron speaks directly with Chancellor Friedrich Merz to try to tune their violins. The matter is more complex than it seems, because the two heavyweights of the euro zone want to take the opportunity to share two other soon-to-be vacant positions on the ECB board: those of the chief economist, the Irishman Philip Lane, whose mandate expires in May, and the German Isabel Schnabel, in charge of market operations, who is preparing to join the IMF at the beginning of 2027.

“There are in reality three positions to be filled, and it is this balance which is already the subject of discussions between the President of the Republic and the Chancellor”, in order to achieve “a shared vision, not only of people, but of the missions and objectives of the ECB”, we underline at the Élysée. The goal is to achieve "an orderly and rapid transition, and above all one which continues to provide the signals of stability that we need for the European Central Bank", the French presidency argues. “Discussions on the future governance of the ECB are ongoing.

No decision has been taken so far,” a spokesperson for the German government told AFP, without saying more about the options envisaged. According to corroborating sources, France has expressed to Germany its preference for Pablo Hernandez de Cos as president, and would see Laurence Boone, ex-Secretary of State and former chief economist of the OECD, today boss of the Santander bank in France, recover the position by Isabel Schnabel On the German side, things are more vague.

In addition, if Klaas Knot was preferred to Pablo Hernandez de Cos for the presidency, a fourth position would become available on the ECB board, that of his compatriot Frank Elderson, further widening the scope of negotiations. Things could nevertheless move quickly, if there is a Franco-German agreement. In this case, the leaders of the euro zone could endorse it during the European summit on November 26 and 27 in Brussels.

Machine-translated from French