‘Vive l’Europe!’ Declares Christine Lagarde on IMF Question

By Sebastian Moffett

The normally easy-to-understand Christine Lagarde walked a diplomatic tightrope Thursday over the choice of a new IMF head.

European and Asian governments are engaged in a polite tussle over whether to continue the tradition of IMF managing directors coming from Europe—or whether to choose, say, an Asian to reflect the new power of that region.

During a supermarket tour on Thursday—the kind of thing she does from time to time to stay in touch with the concerns of ordinary shoppers— Ms. Lagarde said (in a literal, if awkward, translation): “Any candidacy should emanate from Europeans, who congregate together.”

Did that mean she was demanding a European IMF head? It sounds a bit like that—if a candidate comes from Europe, then he or she is rather obviously going to be European. But maybe she chose the word “candidacy” (rather than “candidate”) carefully—to mean something more like a “proposal for a candidate.”

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