Lorenzo Bini Smaghi is ready to leave his seat on the executive council of the ECB to a Frenchman. But first he wants someone to tell him which chair he can move to. A source close to the French presidential office revealed it to Reuters. “Lorenzo Bini Smaghi's problem does not concern whether or not he will leave – said the source – the question he is asking himself is where he will end up”.
The mandate of the Italian councilor would expire in May 2013, but his resignation is part of the pact concluded last April between Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Bini Smaghi's sacrifice represents the counterpart to the support offered by Paris to Mario Draghi's candidacy as Jean Claude Trichet's successor at the helm of the ECB.
