FRENCH PRESIDENT Nicolas Sarkozy praised Christine Lagarde as “a woman of very great qualities” yesterday as he sought to rally international support for her campaign to become the next head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Although the vacancy created by Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s resignation was not on the agenda at the opening day of the G8 summit in Deauville, Mr Sarkozy said the issue had been discussed in bilateral meetings between leaders.
“We think it would be appropriate that the director of the IMF be a European,” he said of the French position. “Everybody thinks Christine Lagarde is a woman of very great qualities.”
French officials said Ms Lagarde, France’s finance minister, was planning to campaign for support by travelling to countries such as China and Brazil, which are reluctant to have another European take the helm at the fund.
Having already secured the public support of major European capitals, Ms Lagarde is widely seen as the frontrunner to replace her compatriot, Mr Strauss-Kahn.
The Chinese government issued a statement yesterday saying it wanted an open, merit-based selection process – a reference to the tradition where the IMF post is always held by a European – but the momentum behind Ms Lagarde may mean such interventions are aimed largely at securing a commitment that her successor will come from an emerging economic power.
An unwritten convention in place since the institutions were created after the second World War means the IMF leadership goes to a European and the corresponding post at the World Bank goes to an American.
While there was no comment in Deauville from President Barack Obama, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton gave Washington’s strongest public hint so far that it would support Ms Lagarde.
“As you know, the time frame for candidates to be put forward has a few more weeks to run, so officially the United States will be assessing and then eventually announcing its position,” Mrs Clinton said in Paris. “Unofficially, let me say we welcome women who are well qualified and experienced to head major organisations such as the IMF.”
On the first day of their summit in the French resort down of Deauville, leaders of the G8 industrialised states – France, the US, Japan, Germany, Britain, Italy, Russia and Canada – discussed issues including the conflict in Libya, climate change, the global economy and nuclear power.
After the plenary session, Mr Sarkozy again called on Muammar Gadafy to step down in Libya and send his troops back to their barracks.
“We are not saying that Gadafy needs to be exiled,” Mr Sarkozy said. “That’s not our problem. When we say he must leave, he must leave power and the quicker he does it, the greater his choice of destinations.”
On the Middle East, Mr Sarkozy said the recent unity deal between the Fatah movement and its Islamist rival Hamas was “good news” for the peace process.
He also praised the “courageous” recent speech by Mr Obama in which the US president envisaged a peace deal based on Israel’s 1967 borders – an idea rejected by Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
French foreign minister Alain Juppé will travel to the region for talks next week in the hope of convincing both sides to come back to the negotiating table and push for a peace and donors conference in France this summer.
While Mr Sarkozy stressed the common ground among G8 leaders, the confirmation yesterday that France and Russia had reached a long-awaited agreement on Moscow’s purchase of four French helicopter carriers may cause disquiet elsewhere.