Lagarde To Leave ECB Early To Allow Macron To Pick Successor, Report Says

By Thomas Moller-Nielsen

(EurActiv) — Christine Lagarde will resign as head of the European Central Bank before her eight-year term expires in October 2027, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

Citing a person familiar with the French national’s thinking, the FT said Lagarde’s decision was made to allow French President Emmanuel Macron to help pick the next leader of the euro area’s powerful central bank.

Macron, a centrist whose second term as French president ends in April 2027, is barred from running for a third term. Polls suggest that the far-right National Rally led by Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen is likely to win power.

The ECB denied the FT’s reporting: “President Lagarde is totally focused on her mission and has not taken any decision regarding the end of her term,” an ECB spokesperson said.

Speaking to reporters earlier this week, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure also refused to comment on the possibility of Lagarde resigning before her term expires.

“There’s obviously a great president of the ECB,” Lescure said before a meeting of euro area ministers in Brussels that Lagarde also attended. “As far as I know, she’s here and well.”

A spokesperson for the French government declined to comment. The euro fell against the dollar following the FT’s article, dropping 0.15% to $1.1834 as of 10:40 am CET.

Le Pen, who is fighting to overturn a ruling barring her from running in next year’s election for misusing public funds while serving as an MEP, lost to Macron in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections.

The FT’s article comes just days after François Villeroy de Galhau resigned before his term as governor of the Bank of France expired. Many interpreted the move as being done primarily to allow Macron to pick his successor.

Lagarde, a former lawyer who joined the ECB in 2019 after heading the International Monetary Fund, is credited by many with helping to tame the surge in inflation following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Lagarde has previously explicitly denied that she would leave her post early. “I’m determined to complete my term,” she said in June last year. “So I regret to tell you that you’re not about to see the back of me.”