FRENCH FINANCE minister Christine Lagarde will begin lobbying for support today after declaring her candidacy to head the International Monetary Fund.
Alluding to calls from emerging economic powers for an end to the tradition of appointing a European to run the fund, Ms Lagarde said being European should be “neither a plus nor a minus” and that she would reach out to non-European states.
Ms Lagarde’s declaration followed public affirmations of support from major European capitals for her to succeed her compatriot Dominique Strauss-Kahn. But emerging states have campaigned for the selection process to be widened.
On Tuesday, the IMF executive directors for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa said the “obsolete unwritten convention” of appointing a European as managing director undermined “the legitimacy” of the fund and called for a “truly transparent, merit-based and competitive process”.
Ms Lagarde said that, if successful, she would “serve the fund, not as a European, not as a French person or minister, but as someone at the service of the fund and its members”.
She said she would bring her experience as a “lawyer, company director, finance minister and a woman” to the role.
With the selection process expected to be complete by the end of June, Ms Lagarde said she would travel to a number of countries over the coming weeks to make her case. A ministry source said travel plans were still being finalised but that China would be on her itinerary.
Ms Lagarde promised to serve a full five-year term if chosen, unlike her three predecessors, and to give priority to completing reform of the fund to give greater weight to emerging economies. “The emergence of a number of big players like China, India, Brazil and Russia . . . forces us to ask ourselves about their representation at the heart of the institution.”
The IMF’s Bric (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries have so far failed to unite behind a single candidate, weakening their case. The non-European candidates who have entered the race so far are Agustín Carstens, governor of the central bank of Mexico and Grigory Marchenko, who heads the central bank of Kazakhstan.
Asked about comments by one of her government colleagues that she had the support of China, Ms Lagarde said there had been official statements of support from some countries, while others had indicated their backing in “discussions and exchanges”.
US treasury secretary Timothy Geithner called Ms Lagarde and Mr Carstens “very credible” candidates and, without endorsing either, described his French counterpart as “an exceptionally capable person . . . and the kind of political skills you need”.
The EU and the United States have enough joint voting power to decide who leads the fund, and French president Nicolas Sarkozy will hope to win a formal endorsement for Ms Lagarde from US president Barack Obama when they meet at the G8 summit in Deauville today.
One of the potential obstacles facing Ms Lagarde is the possibility of a judicial inquiry being launched next month into her handling of a legal dispute between the state and French businessman and ex-minister Bernard Tapie.
Judges in Paris are due to announce whether they will accept a prosecutor’s request for a formal inquiry into allegations that Ms Lagarde exceeded her authority when settling a legal dispute with Mr Tapie to pay him €285 million of taxpayers’ money. A decision on the inquiry is expected on June 10th – the deadline for nominations for the IMF post.
Ms Lagarde said she would remain a candidate irrespective of that decision. “I have every confidence in this procedure because my conscience is perfectly clear.”