(Bloomberg) — Christine Lagarde played down suggestions that she may have ambitions to become the next French president.
“I think it is a terrible job — and I think you have to be sort of wired for that, and I don’t think it is my case, really,” the European Central Bank chief told the College Leaders in Finance podcast when asked about the option of taking that job.
Lagarde’s non-renewable eight-year term in Frankfurt runs through October 2027. Emmanuel Macron’s stint as French president ends the same year, albeit several months earlier.
“It doesn’t mean that I don’t want to serve my country, it doesn’t mean that I don’t want to serve Europe, it doesn’t mean I’m going to be selfish the day when I step down, but I think it’s a grueling job for which you have to be a bit crazy to want to do it,” she said in the interview recorded on Thursday and broadcast Sunday.
Being asked about her interest in France’s top political job is “very flattering, it shows that people have trust in me,” she said. “It’s very nice, it’s very flattering, but I have to know myself well enough, and I have to be attentive to my limitations.”
Asked about her post-ECB plans, she stayed vague.
“There are so many other things I want to do,” she said. “I don’t think I would call it retirement. But it might be different, it might be a bit more about what I really care about, what I really like. But I don’t see myself putting my feet up, watching television, or doing some traveling around for no particular purpose — I don’t think it would work for me.”
Still, she does see having “more time for myself,” and “for the grandchildren, and the family I don’t see enough,” she said.
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