Eurogroup countries have until this Friday to propose candidates for the presidency of the European Central Bank, which Christine Lagarde will leave on February 7. Pablo Hernández de Cos and Klaas Knot are the names that are most mentioned.
Eurogroup countries have until this Friday, November 6, to present candidates for the presidency of the European Central Bank (ECB). According to elperiodico.com, the competition is so close that, just a few months before the decision, no observer has a clear idea of who will take the position. The two names that stand out the most are Pablo Hernández de Cos and Klaas Knot, with very different profiles.
Christine Lagarde announced last Thursday that she is bringing forward the end of her mandate. It was expected to expire in October 2027, but she will leave the position on February 7. After more than seven years at the helm of the ECB, her tenure has been marked by the pandemic, the wars in Ukraine and Iran, and, ultimately, the sovereign debt tensions with France.
The process is decided within the Eurogroup. The first deliberation meeting will be on Monday, November 9. If there is no consensus, the next meeting will be on December 10. An unexpected candidate may emerge, as happened with Lagarde herself when she succeeded Mario Draghi.
Hernández de Cos started as an unlikely candidate, or underdog. He is the general director of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and former governor of the Bank of Spain, and no Spaniard has ever explicitly participated in this process. Nevertheless, the political support from the PP and PSOE has been key in placing him in the spotlight.
The government took the decisive step when Pedro Sánchez officially expressed his support for the candidacy in an interview, something that was not taken for granted due to De Cos's closeness to the Popular Party. Days later, Alberto Núñez Feijóo publicly backed the candidate, turning the proposal into a state matter.
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