France plans to back Hernández de Cos for ECB, report says

France plans to back Spain's Pablo Hernández de Cos to succeed Christine Lagarde as president of the European Central Bank, along with a chief economist chosen by Berlin, Le Monde reported on Tuesday. The report followed the first talks among eurozone finance ministers on the succession. Le Monde said President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz discussed the appointments over the weekend. It added that Germany's position was "not yet fully settled."lemonde.fr

The two-way race between Hernández de Cos and the Netherlands' Klaas Knot is part of a wider deal. Three seats on the ECB's six-member Executive Board need filling, so the presidency is likely to be negotiated as a package.

Monday's Eurogroup talks

Ministers took up the nominations at the Eurogroup meeting in Brussels on Monday, November 9. Eurogroup President Kyriakos Pierrakakis called the session an "information point," not a decision, Bloomberg reported. "The ambition here is that the whole process would have completed itself by the end of the year," Pierrakakis said, according to AFP via Channels TV. Lagarde has said she will step down by February 7, 2027.bloomberg.com+1

Each country's finance minister made the case for its candidate. Spanish Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo said Hernández de Cos, a former Bank of Spain governor who now heads the Bank for International Settlements, "knows the ECB inside out." Dutch Finance Minister Eelco Heinen called Knot, who led the Dutch central bank from 2011 to 2025, an "excellent candidate". Pierrakakis said all three appointments may be considered together by EU leaders "in order to facilitate consensus".channelstv.com+2

The wider bargain

Besides the presidency, chief economist Philip Lane is due to leave in May 2027, and Isabel Schnabel will leave the board for the International Monetary Fund in early January, Le Monde reported. The paper said former French minister Laurence Boone could take charge of market operations. It also named the IMF's Tobias Adrian as one possible German pick for chief economist.lemonde.fr

The Dutch side is still campaigning. In a Financial Times interview on Monday, Knot said the ECB would "not hesitate" to use its crisis tools if the euro area faced another debt emergency. In a separate essay, he expressed support for joint European debt issuance. Le Monde described these signals as "aimed squarely at Paris," even at the risk of losing Berlin's support.briefs.co

Politics could still shift the outcome. Eunews noted that the centre-right European People's Party has strong influence among leaders, while Hernández de Cos is backed by Pedro Sánchez's socialist government. Spain holds elections on November 29. Leaders will meet informally in Dublin on Friday, November 13, and again in Brussels on November 26–27.eunews.it+1