Europe is not to cede IMF liderasgo Jail without bail on suspicion of sexual assault, goodbye to his future political career, the end even his current leadership at the IMF and finally a mess that neither the novels of John Le Carré. Dominique Strauss-Kahn only has started already guess what a long journey through the courts, but to await the verdict the legal position of managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) already has serious implications both in French politics and in the global economy. A Strauss-Kahn is given by and amortized in Paris, but also in Washington and in Beijing, no one expected yesterday to open the succession debate in the Fund. The EU, Angela Merkel at the helm, rallied for the next number one IMF remains in Europe, and the major emerging warned that planted battle to end the practice. Europe's weight on the board of global economic policy is at stake.
The IMF is an old institution born after World War II, in whose founding act took just 40 countries. Europe, on the one hand, and the U.S., on the other, shared leadership: an American to the presidency of the World Bank, its sister institution, the more inclined to cooperation, and a European to head the IMF, a sort of fireman acting economic crisis in developing countries. That tacit agreement was respected for almost 60 years: the 10 IMF directors have been European. But the world has changed mucho desde 1944, especialmente desde la última crisis, que ha castigado a los países ricos y de la que han salido reforzados los llamados emergentes como China, India y Brasil, que ahora quieren hacer valer su pujanza.
Europa tiene "buenas razones" y "buenos candidatos" para que el director gerente del Fondo siga siendo un representante europeo, abrió fuego Merkel antes de la reunión del Eurogrupo en Bruselas, en la que tenía que haber participado Strauss-Kahn para acordar el futuro del rescate a Grecia. De momento, de los posibles candidatos europeos sobresale uno: la ministra francesa de Economía, Christine Lagarde, aglutina una impecable gestión de la crisis en Francia, una agenda sobresaliente con la actual chairmanship of the G-20, excellent English, they are women, traditionally an institution run by men, and good relations with the U.S., second largest shareholder of the Fund.
succession debate launched by "some European countries" was deemed "indecent" last night by the Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, a friend of Strauss-Kahn, following the Eurogroup meeting, reports Missé Andreu. Lagarde also considered "premature" and refused to discuss his possible candidacy.
The sheer weight of the Old Continent in the institution is the main reason for claiming Merkel argues that maintaining the status quo. Europe and can accumulate shares in the Fund, but also is also the principal debtor, after the credits granted to Greece, Ireland, Portugal and several Eastern European countries. "The director of the IMF should take up politics as to stop him to Germany, and also must be powerful enough for the Fund to enforce its plans in the countries bailed out," said a source close to the IMF in Washington. "A few people answered this profile: Lagarde or Gordon Brown," said the source.
Europe controls 29% of the votes in the IMF, when its economic weight in the world at around 20%. Recent changes in share-a sort of action after the Fund can provide loans, accounted for cut of 2.9 points for the Europeans, who have won the pop. Even so, China has only 6% of the votes, with an economy that accounts for 14% of global GDP. The same problem with India and Brazil. Strauss-Kahn has accelerated over the last three years an emerging transformation to gain weight, but this will be a very slow process, no one is willing to lose share in power.
"The European crisis and the changing of the guard in the global economy, with the rise of emerging markets, makes the succession of Strauss-Kahn at a critical moment for the future of the IMF," said Thomas Baliño, exsubdirector the Fund. "The Emerging going to press because they know that now time, but Europe is not going to budge and it is unlikely that the U.S. supports a non-European candidate, because it could begin to lose control of the institution, "he said.
The number two of the institution, the American John Lipsky, has been temporarily holding the reins, but even has the backing of the U.S. and has already announced that he will leave in August. The case is that they have begun out candidates. In Europe circulate the names of Lagarde, Brown (discarded because it lacks the support of London) and the German Peer Streinbrück.'s emerging and months are at stake. The Turkish ex-minister Kemal Dervis, the governor Bank of Israel Stanley Fisher, the South African former minister Trevor Manuel and Governor of the Bank of Mexico, Agustin Carstens, are some favorite non . After two of the three past directors of the IMF (Horst Köhler and Rodrigo Rato) left early. And in the Fund assumes that Strauss-Kahn also complete its mandate. Lissette Garcia
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