Eventually Christine Lagarde, in pole position to succeed Strauss-Khan, came out of reserve. He hurriedly convened a press conference at his dicastery in Paris, overlooking the Seine: thus he officially launched his candidacy, obtaining the endorsement of the president of the EU commission, José Manuel Barroso, after a few minutes.
It is an important step before the G8 summit starts in two days in Deauville. Germany, the UK and Italy have already pledged substantial support. But there are obstacles to running. First of all, the more or less veiled doubts, at least for the moment, of China and some big emerging countries, with Brazil in the lead. Even if the biggest problems could actually come from the home front. French justice must decide whether Lagarde will be implicated in the Bernard Tapie affair, the French billionaire geek.
For an old story, relating to the acquisition of Adidas by Tapie, Lagarde decided in 2007, amid controversy, that the entrepreneur's request for compensation should be subject to special arbitration by a private court. Who then accepted Tapie's requests. Result: the French taxpayer paid a whopping 385 million euros to the controversial monsieur in question. The sentence of the French justice regarding a possible liability of Lagarde should materialize at the latest on 10 June, the day of the deadline for candidacies for the post of director general of the IMF.
