By Giuseppe Fonte
ROME, Feb 18 (Reuters) – European Central Bank Executive Board Member Piero Cipollone said on Wednesday he had “no news” about ECB President Christine Lagarde resigning before the end of her term.
On Wednesday the Financial Times reported that Lagarde plans to leave her job early, ahead of next year’s French presidential election, to give outgoing French leader Emmanuel Macron an input into picking her successor.
Her term is due to end in October 2027 but some fear that the far right may win the French presidential race in the spring of 2027, complicating the selection for the new chief of Europe’s top financial institution.
At the end of a meeting of Italy’s banking association, ABI, in Rome, Cipollone added that Lagarde was “in full control of the central bank and is always guiding us with the necessary strength and energy.”
(Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte in Rome, editing by Giulia Segreti and Giselda Vagnoni)
