The managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Friday (January 22) she will run for a second term.
Christine Lagarde has no obvious challengers and has said previously she was open to serving another term.
“Yes I am candidate to a second mandate. I was honoured to receive from the start of the process the backing of France, Britain, Germany, China, Korea, Mexico,” she told France 2 television in an interview from Davos.
In France Lagarde has been accused of negligence over a payout of some 400 million euros ($430 million) to businessman Bernard Tapie while she was France’s finance minister. Last month a French court ordered her to face trial and she has said she will appeal that decision.
“My lawyers have appealed this decision. I still consider that I always acted in the state’s interest and within the law. I have my conscience for me in this affair. I hope the courts — when the judicial procedure ends, however long and difficult it might be — will agree with that, just as public prosecution has,” she told France 2.
France’s main prosecutor recommended in September that magistrates drop their investigation into Lagarde for alleged negligence with regard to the affair. But in December, Magistrates at the Cour de justice de la Republique – which judges ministers for crimes in office – ordered Lagarde to face trial over her role in the Credit Lyonnais/Bernard Tapie affair. (Reuters)