It is now a two-way race between Christine Lagarde and Agustin Carstens to succeed Dominque Strauss Kahn at the helm of the International Monetary Fund. Today was in fact the last day to present the candidacies, and after the last-minute renunciations of the Kazakh Marchenko and the South African Manuel Trevor, they are the only candidates left in the game.
Both Lagarde and Carstens in recent days had carried out an intense lobbying activity in order to obtain consensus. Lagarde spoke in Lisbon where she attends the African Development Bank's annual meeting after visiting India and China and as she prepares to travel to Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Meanwhile Carstens, expected in Washington next week, met Indian leaders in New Delhi to seek consensus around his candidacy.
The French finance minister seems to be the favourite, above all for the role that the IMF will have to play in the Eurozone debt crisis, despite the judicial shingle that the candidate has fallen into. The decision of the French Court of Justice on the opening or otherwise of a formal investigation against Lagarde for abuse of office regarding the so-called Tapie affair was expected for today, but has been postponed until XNUMX July.
For his part, the Mexican Carstens, who bet on a feeling of revenge from the emerging countries that have never had their own man at the head of the IMF, has not managed to build a coalition of these countries around him nor has he managed to obtain a yes by the Bric who indeed "have already privately admitted that in all likelihood they will support Lagarde" said the former member of the board of the Monetary Fund, Domenico Lombardi.
Who will prevail and sit in the chair that once belonged to Strauss-Kahn? The final verdict will be reached by 30 June. And Lagarde, who today officially obtained the support of African countries, seems to be in pole position.
