Schwab moots Christine Lagarde as successor at WEF

Klaus Schwab and Christine Lagarde, pictured at the WEF in Davos in 2013. Keystone-SDA

World Economic Forum (WEF) founder Klaus Schwab has said that European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde has discussed the possibility of succeeding him at the Geneva-based organisation.

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The information was reported this week by the Financial Times (FT) newspaper, which also floated the possibility of Lagarde leaving the ECB before her mandate ends in October 2027.

Schwab resigned from the post of chairman of WEF at the end of April in the wake of an external investigation into allegations of possible misconduct, which he denies.

The 87-year-old told the FT that practical arrangements had been made and that he visited Lagarde in April “to discuss with her the leadership transition [at WEF] with myself remaining chair until she was ready to take over, at the latest, early 2027”.

An ECB spokesperson told the newspaper that “President Lagarde has always been fully committed to her mission and is determined to complete her mandate”.

According to the FT, which cites sources familiar with the matter, Lagarde has reportedly asked to leave the ECB ten months before her eight-year, non-renewable term expires. The president of the institution has also reportedly pledged she will first succeed in bringing inflation in line with the ECB’s medium-term target of 2%.

For its part, the WEF told the paper that it was “not in any position to comment on possible confidential discussions that may have taken place between our former chairman and Madame Lagarde”.

The 69-year-old former Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and French Finance Minister would be the second ECB president, after Wim Duisenberg, to leave the Frankfurt-based institution early.

Schwab told the FT that an apartment in the WEF-owned Villa Mundi, overlooking Lake Geneva, had already been put aside for Lagarde, to give her “somewhere to work as she took on more responsibilities and needed to be here”.

Responding to an informant’s claims that his family had private use of parts of the Villa Mundi complex, Schwab added that the flat was not for him, but for Lagarde.

The WEF described his comments on the flat as “new information for us”, adding that Villa Mundi “is now used by our staff and constituents”.

According to the FT, several people familiar with the succession at the helm of the WEF warned that no formal agreement had yet been reached between the institution and Lagarde. However, they pointed out that conversations between Lagarde and the Forum about a leadership role continued even after Schwab’s departure, the British newspaper wrote.

Translated from Italian by DeepL/dos

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