EU governments on Friday named Bulgarian Kristalina Georgieva as their candidate to head the IMF, following a tight vote that revealed divisions within member countries. "Mrs Georgieva is now the candidate of the European countries, we will all support her candidacy," said French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who organized the vote after having noted the day before that no candidate had the necessary support, an unprecedented procedure within the EU to designate its candidate for the IMF.
After a long day of voting and negotiations, conservative Georgieva, currently number two in the World Bank, won the second round of voting against her opponent, the Dutch Social Democrat Jeroen Dijsselbloem, former president of the Eurogroup. The Bulgarian, supported by Paris, won the support of 56% of the countries representing 57% of the EU population, against only 44% of the countries and 43% of the population for its rival in the race for succession to IMF Christine Lagarde, who will take this autumn the presidency of the European Central Bank (ECB). The general direction of the IMF traditionally returns to a European.
A consensus to end divisions
"It is an honor to be nominated as a candidate for the role of Managing Director of the IMF," responded in a tweet Kristalina Georgieva, who noted that she was taking an administrative leave from the World Bank during the process of nomination. The Dutchman, who was supported by Berlin, congratulated Kristalina Georgieva and wished her on Twitter the "greatest success".
During the day, three other candidates had withdrawn from the race: the current president of the Eurogroup, the Portuguese Mario Centeno, the governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn, and the Spanish Minister of Finance Nadia Calvino. "There have been a lot of divisions on this subject in recent days and weeks (...) but in the end the consensus was found," said a French source.