Germany’s finance minister added to a chorus of calls for France’s Christine Lagarde to become a new leader of the IMF.
Lagarde has emerged as a front-runner to replace Dominique Strauss-Kahn, also of France, who resigned last week to face charges in New York that he tried to rape a hotel maid. He denies the charges.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Saturday that Lagarde would give Europe its best chance to again lead the fund. German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday stopped short of formally endorsing Lagarde, but called her a “distinguished” and “very experienced” personality.
“Europe would have the best chance to secure the post again with Christine Lagarde, if she decides to run,” Schaeuble told the German weekly Bild am Sonntag.
He was quoted as saying that Lagarde was “outstandingly qualified” and “extremely respected and appreciated in the entire financial world.”
Schaeuble and Merkel said that it was crucial that all Europeans now rally behind a candidate.
BUSINESS AS USUAL
The IMF insists that Strauss-Kahn’s departure has not hurt its day-to-day operations, but it is clearly under pressure to find a successor fast to lead an organization that provides billions in loans to stabilize the world economy.
The 24-member executive board, which will pick Strauss-Kahn’s successor, held a preliminary discussion on Friday at the IMF’s headquarters in Washington. They said in a statement late on Friday that the selection of the fund’s new managing director would be completed by the end of next month.
However, many say the fund — shaken by Strauss-Kahn’s abrupt departure while it plays a crucial role in Europe’s ongoing sovereign debt crisis — needs to get a new leader even faster to get his job done.
The chairman of the organization’s policy advisory committee, Singaporean Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, said the IMF was facing pressing challenges and speedy selection of a new leader would be good.
The selection process to find a new IMF chief should be open, transparent and merit-based, the chairman of the IMF’s International Monetary and Financial Committee said in a statement on Saturday.
A US Treasury official earlier last week said the US had not -decided whether to support Lagarde or a non-European for the job.
The EU’s 27 members combined hold the biggest IMF stake, but emerging economies see Europe’s traditional stranglehold on the position as increasingly out of touch with the world economy.
However, they have not yet united around a candidate.
Lagarde’s chances for the job got a boost on Friday when Kemal Dervis, a former finance minister for Turkey who had been considered the leading non-European candidate, said he did not want to be considered for the position.
IMF FOR EUROPEANS
Schaeuble also defended the decades-old agreement under which an American gets to lead the World Bank and a European its sister institution, the IMF.
“After all, the US and Europe pay by far the biggest share of the contributions. It’s like in a publicly traded company: Those who hold the majority of shares will also get to name the chairman,” he was quoted as saying.
Lagarde, 55, has a clean-cut image and has been praised for her acumen in helping steer Europe through the global financial crisis and its more recent debt woes. She speaks impeccable English and spent much of her career in the US as a lawyer.
Lagarde is an “outstanding candidate” to head the IMF, her British counterpart said on Saturday.
“We support her because she’s the best person for the job, but I also personally think it would be a very good thing to see the first female managing director of the IMF in its 60-year history,” British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said in a statement.
“She’s shown real international leadership as chair of the G20 finance ministers this year. She has also been a strong advocate for countries tackling high budget deficits and living within their means,” he said.
As the sun sets on another scorching Yangon day, the hot and bothered descend on the Myanmar city’s parks, the coolest place to spend an evening during yet another power blackout. A wave of exceptionally hot weather has blasted Southeast Asia this week, sending the mercury to 45°C and prompting thousands of schools to suspend in-person classes. Even before the chaos and conflict unleashed by the military’s 2021 coup, Myanmar’s creaky and outdated electricity grid struggled to keep fans whirling and air conditioners humming during the hot season. Now, infrastructure attacks and dwindling offshore gas reserves mean those who cannot afford expensive diesel
Does Argentine President Javier Milei communicate with a ghost dog whose death he refuses to accept? Forced to respond to questions about his mental health, the president’s office has lashed out at “disrespectful” speculation. Twice this week, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni was asked about Milei’s English Mastiff, Conan, said to have died seven years ago. Milei, 53, had Conan cloned, and today is believed to own four copies he refers to as “four-legged children.” Or is it five? In an interview with CNN this month, Milei referred to his five dogs, whose faces and names he had engraved on the presidential baton. Conan,
French singer Kendji Girac, who was seriously injured by a gunshot this week, wanted to “fake” his suicide to scare his partner who was threatening to leave him, prosecutors said on Thursday. The 27-year-old former winner of France’s version of The Voice was found wounded after police were called to a traveler camp in Biscarrosse on France’s southwestern coast. Girac told first responders he had accidentally shot himself while tinkering with a Colt .45 automatic pistol he had bought at a junk shop, a source said. On Thursday, regional prosecutor Olivier Janson said, citing the singer, that he wanted to “fake” his suicide
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed his pledge to replace India’s religion-based marriage and inheritance laws with a uniform civil code if he returns to office for a third term, a move that some minority groups have opposed. In an interview with the Times of India listing his agenda, Modi said his government would push for making the code a reality. “It is clear that separate laws for communities are detrimental to the health of society,” he said in the interview published yesterday. “We cannot be a nation where one community is progressing with the support of the Constitution while the other