BERLIN (MNI) – The German government has not yet decided about a
possible candidate to succeed ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet,
government spokesman Steffen Seibert said Wednesday.
“The mandate of Mr. Trichet still reaches far into autumn,” Seibert
said at a regular government press conference here. “In this respect
there exists no need to decide now in January and the federal government
has not decided.”
German weekly Die Zeit reported Wednesday the chances that Bank of
Italy Governor Mario Draghi will get the top job at the ECB are
“diminishing.”
Citing high-ranking monetary authorities in Germany and France, the
newspaper said it was “unlikely” that Draghi would get the nod to
succeed Trichet at the end of his term in October.
A few northern European states oppose the Italian for the top
position, the paper said. Although Draghi’s qualifications are not
questioned, Germany is at present opposed to seeing a southern European
in the top job.
Nevertheless, a final decision has not been taken, the paper
reported. This is not expected before May or June, it added.
Die Zeit said that France might conceivably reconsider its
opposition to German Bundesbank president Axel Weber if it could
nominate a Frenchman as the ECB’s chief economist. The German Juergen
Stark, who now holds this post, would then have to step down if Weber
took the ECB’s helm.
Among other compromise candidates in the running, the newspaper
cited Finland’s Central Bank chief Erkki Liikanen, Luxembourg’s Yves
Mersch and the head of the European Financial Stability Facility, Klaus
Regling, a former German Finance Ministry official.
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com
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