Christine Lagarde

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Christine Lagarde (2020)
Christine Lagarde's signature

Christine Madeleine Odette Lagarde (* 1. January 1956 in Paris as Christine Madeleine Odette Lallouette ) is a French politician ( LR ) and lawyer . Since November 1, 2019 she has been the 4th President of the European Central Bank (ECB).

From 2011 to 2019 she was the Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). From June 2007 to June 2011 she was Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance in the cabinet of Prime Minister François Fillon . She is or was the first woman in the respective position at the ECB and IMF as well as in the French government.

In December 2016, Lagarde was convicted of negligent use of public funds in a criminal case by the Court of Justice of the Republic , but no sentence was imposed.

On the list of the 100 most powerful women in the world compiled by the US business magazine Forbes , Lagarde took second place in 2019.

Life

childhood and education

Christine Lagarde (née Lallouette) was born in 1956 in Paris as the first of four children of Robert Lallouette († 1973) and his wife Nicole (née Carre). Together with her three siblings Luc, Rémy and Olivier, she grew up in Le Havre in Normandy . Her father was a lecturer in literature at the University of Rouen , her mother a Latin teacher. In her youth she was a member of the French national team of synchronized swimmers ; she won a bronze medal at the French championships. Shortly after graduating from the Lycée Claude Monet in Le Havre and following the death of her father, Lagarde went to the Holton-Arms School , a girls' school in Bethesda , Maryland, on an AFS scholarship in 1974 . During this time she sat in the US Parliament in the office of William Cohen .

After returning to France, she completed a degree in social law at the Institut d'études politiques d'Aix-en-Provence and graduated with a DESS . In preparation for studying at the École nationale d'administration (ENA), she then attended the Institut d'études politiques de Paris (also known as Sciences Po ) and the Université Paris X-Nanterre . She failed the entrance examination for the ENA. Finally, she obtained an MA in English, a Master of Business Law (LL.M.) and a Diploma in Labor Law from the University of Paris X-Nanterre.

Work as a lawyer and switch to politics

Christine Lagarde at a meeting of the UMP (2010)

After completing her studies, Lagarde joined the Paris office of the US law firm Baker & McKenzie as a lawyer in 1981 . From 1999 to 2004 she was President of the Management Board and, from 2004, Chairwoman of the Global Strategy Committee of Baker & McKenzie in Chicago (USA), one of the largest international commercial law firms with around 3,400 lawyers in 70 countries and an annual turnover of around one billion US dollars. From 1995 to 2002 she was also a member of the think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where, together with Zbigniew Brzeziński, she led the USA-EU-Poland Action Committee and specifically in the working group “Arms Industry USA-Poland” (1995-2002 ) who dealt with issues related to trade liberalization with Poland . In 2003 she was also a member of the Euro-Atlantic Action Commission in Washington.

From June 2005 to May 2007, Lagarde was Assistant Minister for Foreign Trade in the de Villepin government . From May 18 to June 19, 2007, she was Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries in the Fillon II cabinet . After a government reshuffle on June 19, 2007, she was Minister for Economic Affairs and Finance until June 29, 2011. On March 31, 2010, she took part in a meeting of the Federal Cabinet in Berlin. It was the first time in the history of the Federal Republic that a foreign guest attended such a cabinet meeting. Her successor as finance minister was François Baroin .

Legal dispute over payment of millions to Bernard Tapie and conviction of Lagarde

Lagarde is said to have rashly agreed to a settlement with the French businessman Bernard Tapie in an arbitration proceeding as Minister of Economic Affairs in 2008 . It was about a controversial compensation payment of 403 million euros to the former Adidas owner, which a private arbitration court had awarded him in 2008. Tapie received the sum in connection with the sale of Adidas shares. The court officially awarded the money to him because he had apparently received too little in the 1990s sale to Crédit Lyonnais. Lagarde claims to have accepted the arbitration verdict in order to prevent another legal dispute between Tapie and the state bank Crédit Lyonnais, which had previously cost taxpayers several million a year. At the request of the public prosecutor's office, the Court of Justice of the Republic in 2011 allowed an investigation into abuse of office against Lagarde.

Two weeks later, the French judiciary formally opened an investigation, as a result of which one of their apartments in Paris was searched in March 2013. In May 2013, she was questioned by a court for two days. In 2014 an indictment was initiated against her, in 2016 the Court of Cassation dismissed her objection. She then had to answer before the Court of Justice of the Republic. In December 2016, Lagarde was found guilty of negligent use of public money by the court. Defense and public prosecutor's office had previously spoken out in favor of an acquittal. However, the court did not impose a penalty.

Director of the IMF

Lagarde during the 2013 World Economic Forum

Christine Lagarde was Managing Director of the IMF from July 5, 2011 to September 12, 2019.

As head of the IMF, she received an annual salary of $ 467,940 plus a lump sum allowance of $ 83,760.

President of the ECB

With the appointment of Lagarde, voices were raised demanding that the President of the ECB should be economists and, ideally, with central bank experience. Lagarde is the first female lawyer to hold this position, her predecessors being economists and financial experts. Unlike the previous presidents, Lagarde never headed a national central bank. According to the economist and professor for monetary economics Volker Wieland , “it is imperative that more and more economists with a scientific background and experience with central banks are appointed”.

Private

Christine Lagarde is divorced from the financial analyst Wilfried Lagarde, with whom she has two sons (* 1986 and 1988). The entrepreneur Xavier Giocanti from Marseille has been her partner since 2006.

Lagarde list

The Lagarde List ( Greek λίστα Λαγκάρντ ) lists the names of alleged Greek tax refugees and triggered several political scandals in Greece . The list contains account details of over 2,000 Greek customers of the Swiss branch of the British private bank HSBC in Geneva . The data were given to the authorities by Hervé Falciani . The then French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde handed a data carrier with the records to her Greek colleague Giorgos Papakonstantinou in 2010 .

Awards

Lagarde was named the second most powerful woman in the world, after Angela Merkel, by Forbes magazine in 2019, and was named the best female finance minister in the euro area in 2009 by the Financial Times . In 2000 she was made a knight ( chevalier ) and in 2012 an officer of the French Legion of Honor .

literature

  • Marc Hujer, Michael Sauga: Elegance and toughness . In: Der Spiegel . No. 44 , 2019, pp. 70–75 ( online - October 26, 2019 ).

Web links

Commons : Christine Lagarde  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Successor to Strauss-Kahn: French Lagarde becomes the new head of the IMF. In: Spiegel Online . June 28, 2011, accessed February 14, 2015 .
  2. ↑ Christian Schubert: Lagarde jumps back into the deep end. In: FAZ.net . June 29, 2011, accessed February 14, 2015 .
  3. ↑ tagesanzeiger.ch: The former French finance minister was found guilty in the Tapie affair , December 20, 2016, accessed on October 31, 2019.
  4. ↑ a b The 100 Most Powerful Women - Forbes.com. In: forbes.com. December 12, 2019, accessed January 11, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Alexandra Borchardt: Crises are your daily business, in: Süddeutsche Zeitung No. 49, February 28/1. March 2015, p. 29.
  6. ^ Karin Finkenzeller: France: Madame with courage. In: zeit.de . March 26, 2010, accessed February 14, 2015 .
  7. ↑ Christian Schubert: The Chosen One. In: FAZ.net . May 29, 2011, accessed February 14, 2015 .
  8. ↑ a b La Tribune October 1, 2010: Interview: Christine Lagarde, la face cachée d'une femme de pouvoir
  9. ↑ Christine Lagarde: la plus américaine des Françaises ( Memento of August 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: Le Nouvel Économiste .
  10. ↑ Brief CV ConsulFrance: Biography of Christine Lagarde Minister for Foreign Trade (PDF; 26 kB) (English)
  11. ↑ Euro-Atlantic Action Commission, Plenary Assembly (PDF; 121 kB) February 17, 2005 (English)
  12. ^ Daniel Brössler: Visit of the nice lady, in: Süddeutsche Zeitung No. 76, 1./2. April 2010, p. 6.
  13. ^ Daniel Brössler: Visit of the nice lady, in: Süddeutsche Zeitung No. 76, 1./2. April 2010, p. 6.
  14. ↑ Germany wants Lagarde at the head of the IMF. In: bazonline.ch. November 15, 2011, accessed February 14, 2015 .
  15. ↑ AFP and Reuters: Follow-up debate: Support for Lagarde as head of the IMF is growing. In: zeit.de . May 22, 2011, accessed February 14, 2015 .
  16. ^ Affaire Tapie: la CJR ouvre une enquête sur Christine Lagarde. In: lemonde.fr. August 4, 2011, accessed February 14, 2015 (French).
  17. ↑ Investigation against IMF boss: Judges endanger Lagarde's reputation as Madame Immaculate. In: Spiegel Online . August 4, 2011, accessed February 14, 2015 .
  18. ↑ Christine Lagarde: French justice investigates against IMF boss. In: Spiegel Online . August 4, 2011, accessed February 14, 2015 .
  19. ^ Proceedings against IMF boss Lagarde opened in: Schweizer Fernsehen from August 17, 2011.
  20. ↑ Financial affair surrounding the head of the IMF: Lagarde initially escaped formal investigation. In: Spiegel Online . May 24, 2013, accessed February 14, 2015 .
  21. ↑ Financial affair: Investigations against IMF boss Lagarde initiated. In: Spiegel Online . August 27, 2014, accessed February 14, 2015 .
  22. ↑ IMF boss Lagarde convicted of negligence. Süddeutsche Zeitung, December 19, 2016, accessed on December 19, 2016 .
  23. ↑ Reuters: IMF boss receives half a million dollars in salary. In: handelsblatt.com . July 5, 2011, accessed February 14, 2015 .
  24. ↑ Wirtschaftsweiser questions Lagarde's qualification as head of the ECB. In: presse-augsburg.de. August 2, 2019, accessed November 2, 2019 .
  25. ↑ Christine Lagarde: The top woman. In: Der Spiegel . July 3, 2019, accessed November 1, 2019 .
  26. ^ Republique française: Biography ( Memento of December 1, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (French)
  27. ↑ Xavier Giocanti, le mari de ... Christine Lagarde. In: parismatch.com. August 3, 2010, archived from the original on January 3, 2013 ; accessed on February 14, 2015 (French).
  28. ^ Arte: Falciani and the banking scandal
  29. ↑ FT ranking of EU finance ministers. In: ft.com. November 16, 2009, accessed February 14, 2015 .
  30. ↑ Christine Lagarde. In: ec.europa.eu. Archived from the original on May 21, 2013 ; accessed on February 14, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Lagarde, Christine
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lallouette, Christine Madeleine Odette
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French politician and lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH January 1, 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris