Lagarde has other strengths. She is an accomplished professional, having been chair of one of the world’s largest law firms and ranked by Forbes last year as the 14th most powerful woman in the world. Thus, she has had two brilliant careers — in business and in politics — and has enormous charisma.
Both women therefore represent very different choices as leaders and potential role models. Moreover, Robinson, born in 1944, is a 20th century person. The presidency of the EU would mark the twilight of her career. Lagarde, at 53, is considerably younger.
Reviving the European dream, however, requires not just the choice of an individual. There has to be a cause. And this is where a key question hangs over Lagarde: how does she feel about Turkey’s membership in the Union? Her boss, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, is vehemently opposed, but Sarkozy (who cannot speak English and is computer illiterate) can hardly be described as a 21st century role model. Lagarde, by contrast, seems to be a global Renaissance woman, but her views on Turkey’s EU membership could disprove that image.
Perhaps the greatest challenge for Europe in the 21st century is to bring down the walls between its non-Muslim and Muslim communities. This applies not only to Muslim citizens in the EU, but also to those in the Balkans — notably Bosnia, Kosovo, and Albania — in the former Soviet Union, and especially in Turkey.
This cannot be accomplished overnight. But the process that was initiated has since stalled. Incorporating Turkey — and eventually other majority Muslim European countries — into the EU is the European dream of the 21st century. Getting the right president next year would be an important step in this journey. Robinson or Lagarde could be the inspiring leaders that the EU needs to make this dream a reality.
Jean-Pierre Lehmann is founding director of the Evian Group and professor of international political economy at the International Institute for Management Development.
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