Economy & Energy
Christine Lagarde to step down as ECB president on 7 February 2027, nine months before her term ends
ECB President Christine Lagarde will leave office on 7 February 2027, about nine months early. European Council President António Costa said the search for a successor starts immediately.
Christine Lagarde will step down as president of the European Central Bank on 7 February 2027, the bank announced on Thursday, 29 October. Her eight-year term was due to run until October 2027, so she will leave about nine months early, handing the euro area’s most powerful economic post to a successor that EU leaders now have to choose.
According to France 24, Lagarde informed the ECB’s Governing Council and the President of the European Council, António Costa, of her decision. She took office in November 2019 after leading the International Monetary Fund and serving as France’s finance minister.
Costa: the process starts immediately
In a statement published by the European Council, Costa said he had received the announcement of her forthcoming departure. France 24 quotes him as praising her “steady and determined stewardship” of the euro area through successive crises, and says he promised to start the procedure for naming a successor at once, “with a view to a timely decision”. The European Council appoints the ECB president under the EU treaties.
The Eurogroup President, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, also commented on the announcement in a press statement.
Who could succeed her
The Irish Times reports that the Dutch government backs Klaas Knot, a former governor of the Dutch central bank, while Spain backs Pablo Hernández de Cos, general manager of the Bank for International Settlements and a former governor of the Bank of Spain. No official nomination has been announced.
The paper adds that Lagarde is the second ECB president in the bank’s history to leave early, after Wim Duisenberg, and that executive board member Isabel Schnabel is due to leave in January for a senior post at the IMF, while chief economist Philip Lane’s term expires in May. Together the changes open a wide reshuffle at the top of the central bank at a time of renewed inflation pressure, the Irish Times says.
France 24 notes that an early vacancy lets European leaders settle the succession before France’s presidential election in April 2027. Lagarde, 70, has been linked in press reports with a role at the World Economic Forum, and she told La Croix last month that seeking another term would “not be a good idea”. The ECB did not give a reason for the timing in the reports reviewed.
