THE FACE in Frankfurt changed yesterday, the tightrope remained as taut as ever.

Mario Draghi kept his balance on his first outing as president of the European Central Bank. After first announcing a surprise rate cut, he launched a stern defence of his financial fort’s independence against marauding monetary vandals, also known as politicians.

But he refused to address the question in the air since his appointment. How would he juggle the ECB’s prized principle of monetary independence with its new bond-buying pragmatism?

“A full house,” remarked an Italian journalist, surveying the press room with satisfaction as the man of the moment arrived. Walking slowly to the podium, as if to the gallows, he wore a wan smile and a wary gaze as photographers jostled for the best shot.

What to expect from the new boy in town: an Italian-born, Jesuit-educated, US habilitated economist and former central banker?

With the precise alliteration of a management handbook, he announced crisply: “Continuity, credibility and consistency.”

But he made no attempt to mimic his silver-maned, silver-tongued Gallic predecessor. Instead, Draghi delivered answers that were brief to the point of curt and peppered with stock ECB waffle. His favourite cliche yesterday: “We never precommit.”

There’s a saying in Germany that the tone makes the music and, in Frankfurt yesterday, Draghi’s debut was definitely in a minor key. Again and again, the journalists posed essentially the same question to lure him out of the long grass. How would the ECB react to an exit of Greece from the club, as floated by Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Juncker?

“That’s not in the treaty.”

Would he cave in to political pressure and buy more Italian bonds to control spreads? “We are not forced by anybody, we are independent. We make our own judgment,” he said icily. “That’s it.”

So he would maintain the anti-inflationary stance of his predecessor, in the Bundesbank tradition? “I have a great admiration for the tradition of the Bundesbank,” he said. “As for the future. Let me do the work and we’ll have periodic checks to see if I am in sync with that tradition or not.”

With Draghi unforthcoming, journalists put his deputy, Vitor Constancio, on the spot. What did he think of his new boss?

“The substance is the same,” he said. “Don’t forget, Mr Draghi has been a member of the governing council for many years. He’s totally embedded in what has been the approach of the governing council over the years.”

For the protesters at the “Occupy Frankfurt” camp, the embedded Draghi is part of the problem. They hung searching questions on poles around their 100 tents pitched between the ECB tower and Frankfurt opera house. “Money rules the world, but who rules money?” asked one hand-painted banner. “Turn finance sharks into fish fingers,” demanded another.