Christine Lagarde Launches Candidacy for Director of IMF
Christine Lagarde
French finance minister, Christine Lagarde, launched on Wednesday her candidacy to the position of managing director of International Monetary Fund, now vacated after former head Dominique Strauss-Kahn was accused of having attacked a housekeeper in a hotel in New York and stands now to be tried in the United States.
The French minister already won the support of many European economic powers. She said that being a French was neither a handicap nor an advantage in the run for the office at IMF.
Still, while she enlists the support of many industrialized countries, debate has sparked as the emerging economies, especially the BRICs, contend that the next head of IMF should no longer be held by an European.
IMF Headquarters in Washington, DC
On Tuesday night, the BRIC members, Brazil, Russia, India, and China, joined by the South African Republic, which aspires to become a member of the club, argued that the old “unwritten convention” stipulating that the head of IMF should be an European was obsolete and that a merit-base appointment should replace it.
While confirming her candidacy Christine Lagarde mentioned that the IMF does not belong to anyone, and being European should not be a plus but neither should it be a minus.
She said that if elected she would serve the fund as a “lawyer, business leader, finance minister and a woman.”
United Kingdom, France, and Germany are already backing the candidacy of Lagarde, and it is thought that the United States also favors it.
Nicolas Sarkozy, who supported the former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn, hopes to convince Obama to support her during his presence at the Group of Eight Summit in France on Thursday.
Lagarde said she favored diversity in the leadership of the international fund, thus being opened to compromise with the emerging countries for a wider representation of their interests on the highest level.
The emerging countries are not united behind one candidate. So far there are two contenders running for the position: Agustin Carstens, governor of the central bank of Mexico, and Grigory Marchenko, head of the central bank of Kazakhstan.
A French minister claimed before the BRIC statement that Christine Lagarde had the support of China.
