ECB President Lagarde to resign early next February

Successor selection process begins ahead of French presidential election

(Berlin = Yonhap News) Correspondent Gye-yeon Kim = European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde (70), who has been constantly rumored to resign early, has decided to resign in February next year.

The ECB said in a statement on the 29th (local time) that "President Lagarde has notified European Council President António Costa (permanent president of the European Union Summit) that she will resign on February 7 next year."

The ECB added that the European Council will appoint a successor in accordance with the procedures set out in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (EU).

Chairman Costa said that the process of selecting a successor will begin today and proceed without delay.

Lagarde, who served as French finance minister and head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), took office as president of the ECB in November 2019. The eight-year term ends at the end of October next year. However, there were rumors that he would quit midway and move to the position of chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF) or that he would return to French politics when the presidential election is held in April next year.

Rumors of President Lagarde's early resignation were amplified as Marine Le Pen, the presidential candidate of the French right-wing party National Rally (RN), continued to lead the approval ratings in opinion polls. The logic is that since Le Pen is negative about European integration, including the Eurozone (21 countries that use the euro), she should be involved in appointing a successor to President Emmanuel Macron before he leaves office.

The highest positions in European politics, including the President of the ECB, are appointed through a weighted majority vote, which is passed when more than 15 EU member states agree on the recommendation and the population of these member states exceeds 65% of the EU's total. In reality, the agreement between the leaders of Germany and France, the two major pillars of the EU, is decisive.

As rumors of Governor Lagarde's resignation have been circulating for over a year, the candidates for the next governor have been narrowed down to former Dutch Central Bank Governor Claes Knot and former Spanish Central Bank Governor Pablo Hernández Decos.

According to the German business magazine Handelsblatt, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz recently met with the two men separately and interviewed them. President Macron is known to be pushing former President Knott on the condition that France take over the position of ECB chief economist.