PARIS (AP) — Momentum grew for French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde's potential candidacy to the top job at the IMF, with the Netherlands becoming the latest European government to offer its support. The Frenchwoman, however, kept silent about whether she even wants the job.
Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager said Lagarde is "outstandingly suitable" to succeed Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who quit last week as leader of the global financial body after he was accused of attempting to rape a New York hotel maid.
Several other European governments — including Germany and Britain — have supported Lagarde, making her the frontrunner for the job.
Some developing countries have called for the International Monetary Fund’s leadership to go to someone outside Europe, which has picked a chief for the fund since its inception after World War II.
The Mexican government has said it will nominate the head of the country’s central bank, Agustin Carstens, for the job.
De Jager, however, told Dutch national broadcaster NOS on Monday he wants a European to keep focus on the debt crisis.
The executive board of the IMF, which provides billions in loans to stabilize the world economy, says it plans to choose a new leader by the end of June.
Lagarde herself would not comment to reporters in Paris asking about the job. "With you, it’s never off the record," she said Monday when one reporter asked her to comment off the record about her possible candidacy.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has yet to formally nominate Lagarde or even speak about the possibility publicly.
Sarkozy will host the leaders of the Group of Eight industrialized nations this week, and they are likely to talk on the sidelines about who the next IMF chief should be.
Several in France have questioned whether Lagarde would be an appropriate candidate given that she may face legal troubles herself involving the 1990s sale of sportswear maker Adidas.
Questions have surfaced about Lagarde’s role in getting arbitration in 2008 for French businessman Bernard Tapie, who won €285 million ($449 million) as compensation for the mishandling of the Adidas sale.
Lagarde was finance minister at the time of the decision. No formal investigation has been announced.
"If (Sarkozy) thinks and he has enough reason to think that there is a risk that the candidacy of Mrs. Lagarde couldn’t be accepted by others worldwide, and that there is a risk that once nominated as IMF chef she could be involved in a judicial inquiry, then this risk shouldn’t be taken. So the real question is about that risk," France’s former Socialist Party chief and a presidential contender, Francois Hollande, said Monday on France-Inter radio.
Angel Gurria, the head of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and a former Mexican finance minister, insisted that the next IMF chief should be chosen exclusively on merit, not based on where he or she is from.
"There should be no automatic exclusion but no automatic inclusion," he told reporters in Paris on Monday. "Some of the names been talked about now are excellent so I think we are on the good road," he said. Gurria’s name has also emerged as a possible candidate for the post.
