Disgraced WEF chief Klaus Schwab wanted ECB chief Christine Lagarde as his successor. He has not made it easier for himself

It didn't come as a complete surprise last week, when news broke about a possible future job for Christine Lagarde. The current head of the European Central Bank (ECB), wrote the business newspaper Financial Times (FT), has been in talks about the chairmanship of the World Economic Forum (WEF) as her next position.

For some time now, rumors have been circulating in Swiss and German media , among others, that Lagarde (69) is being considered as the new head of the WEF, a think tank best known for its annual conference of political and business leaders in Davos, Switzerland.

What made the FT story spicy: the source, and what exactly that source said. The source was Klaus Schwab, founder and until recently chairman of the WEF. Schwab (87) was sent packing last month by the WEF advisory board, after accusations of self-enrichment via the WEF.

The German-Swiss economist told the FT that not only has he been in discussions with Lagarde about his own successor for “several years,” Lagarde could also step down from the ECB before the end of her term in late October 2027. She would like to make the move “early 2027 at the latest,” Schwab said.

Schwab's statements about Lagarde are damaging to the ECB president: the image now hangs over her that she would rather leave Frankfurt, where the ECB is based. The ECB is considered the guardian of stability in the eurozone and does not benefit from unrest at the top. An ECB spokesperson therefore quickly came up with a (short) response: Lagarde has always been "fully committed" to her role at the ECB and she is "determined to serve out her term".

Both Schwab's words and the ECB's response raise a number of questions.

To start with the ECB: Lagarde will give a regular press conference next Thursday, after a rate meeting. She will probably be asked about this issue by the press as well. So far, the ECB press office has not flatly denied that Lagarde talked to Schwab about an early switch. Just because she is now “determined” to “serve out her term” does not mean she has not considered it.

In addition to Schwab, the FT has also spoken to anonymous sources who confirm the story. Lagarde herself is said to have expressed doubts about whether it was a good idea to say goodbye to the ECB prematurely. Lagarde's predecessors, Mario Draghi and Jean-Claude Trichet, both completed their eight-year terms. The first ECB president, Wim Duisenberg (1998-2003), did not, but this was due to a political compromise: France had demanded that Trichet be allowed to take over halfway through his term.

Before becoming ECB president, Lagarde headed the International Monetary Fund and was French finance minister. She will be 71 at the end of her ECB term.

The WEF would be attractive, apart from the probably somewhat empty agenda, also the workplace. The organization is located on Lake Geneva and owns a villa complex (Villa Mundi), which is used for conferences and which also contains an apartment. According to Schwab, that apartment had already been reserved for Lagarde.

It is unclear whether Schwab was telling the truth about this – and in general. The Swiss press is raising the question whether Schwab, who is reportedly very angry about his forced departure from the WEF, wanted to hit his opponents via the FT. A whistleblower is said to have said that Schwab had used an apartment in Villa Mundi privately. By saying that the apartment was not intended for him, but for Lagarde, he would have wanted to counter this.

Schwab tells the FT that his plan to make Lagarde the new WEF chief may have been defeated by his own forced departure last month, saying the WEF's reputation had been damaged too much. "I don't want to lose her. I want to make sure that what has been built here... is not destroyed."

But after Schwab’s comments in the FT this week, it seems that it has become more difficult, if not impossible, to ever bring Lagarde back to the WEF, as she would be following the agenda of a man who has since fallen from grace.