Resignation of Christine Lagarde from the ECB: a departure and multiple hypotheses
The resignation of Christine Lagarde from her post as President of the ECB comes during a period of monetary and political uncertainty.
His intention to leave was revealed by the Financial Times earlier this year. Before Christine Lagarde confirmed it, half-heartedly, to the daily Les Échos in July. But the announcement of her decision to relinquish her position as President of the European Central Bank (ECB) on February 7 – nine months before the planned end of her mandate –, made on October 29 at 11:03 a.m. on the social network X, sparked multiple reactions.
Why did the fourth leader of this key institution of the European Union created twenty-eight years ago choose to leave Frankfurt prematurely? “I want to have freedom of speech and expression, and to take a position on subjects that do not relate to monetary policy,” she declared.
And thus be able to engage in the debates of the electoral campaign. However, despite numerous requests, the former boss of the American law firm Baker & McKenzie, who entered politics in the Villepin government in June 2005, refused to run as a candidate in the presidential election: “Not a good idea at all. »
“She lived in the United States and cannot ignore the catastrophic effects of the non-resignation of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in her post until her death in 2020,” deciphers someone familiar. Which allowed Trump to reshape this pillar of American democracy with his own hands. » Translate: a departure in February allows Emmanuel Macron to take part in the choice of his successor, instead of letting the future occupant of the Élysée take care of it.
A hypothesis attacked by Jean-Luc Mélenchon: “Here is the announced departure of Christine Lagarde, […] to allow Macron to negotiate the next appointment with the chancellor. » The one who will publish her autobiography, Lady First, on February 4, perhaps also wishes to avoid a future conflict of interest, while the interest rate on the national debt is soaring on the financial markets (4.97% on October 30). “It’s difficult for a French woman to decide for or against a possible intervention,” says a banker, “especially if the conditions are not orthodox. »
Close to the duo at the helm of the World Economic Forum in Davos – the boss of the BlackRock investment fund, Larry Fink, and the vice-president of the Roche pharmaceutical group, André Hoffmann –, Christine Lagarde is expected to lead it. The Forum council should decide in the coming days.
The fact remains that his departure, and that of numbers two and three of the ECB, the German Isabel Schnabel (departing for the IMF, a year before the end of her mandate), and the Irish Philip Lane, chief economist, in May, triggers an intense period of negotiations between European states. Berlin cannot impose a German, since Ursula von der Leyen heads the Commission. Nor Paris a Frenchman.
Machine-translated from French
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- La Tribune2 Nov, 06:30
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