The French Minister of Finance, Bruno Le Maire, appointed by his European counterparts to conduct consultations with a view to proposing a single European candidate to succeed Christine Lagarde as managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has put forward five names for this position.
These people are the current Spanish Finance Minister, Nadia Calviño, the current President of the Eurogroup, Mário Centeno, the former President of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Managing Director of the World Bank, Kristalina Georgieva, and the Governor of the Finnish Central Bank, Olli Rehn.
Mrs Lagarde, who will be the next President of the European Central Bank (ECB) (see EUROPE 12287/1), has planned to step down as head of the IMF on 12 September. According to a tacit rule, it is an European who holds the position of managing director of the financial institution.
Mr Maire will now contact his colleagues again to ask them to once more express their preference for one of the five names. One single European candidate will then emerge, who will need to be validated by the executive board of the institution. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)