If Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank (ECB), runs for the French presidential..

If Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank (ECB), runs for the French presidential election in April next year, she could receive the highest support from the middle-of-the-road, according to a poll. Lagarde, who is set to step down as ECB president in February next year, has yet to announce his intention to run for president.

According to Reuters and others on the 12th (local time), a survey conducted by French pollster Cluster 17 showed that if Lagarde runs for president on behalf of the center, he will have a 14% approval rating. This is higher than when former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe (13.5%) and former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal (11%) are assumed to be candidates, respectively.

Even in a survey assuming that 18 ruling and opposition politicians and celebrities are running for president at the same time, Lagarde tied for third with an 8% approval rating.

However, despite such propaganda, it does not seem easy to advance to the final round. In the same survey, Marine Le Pen of the far-right camp and Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the radical left ranked first and second, with 30.5% and 20.5%, respectively. The French presidential election will be held in such a way that the top two in the vote will hold a final vote two weeks later if no majority of the votes are cast in the first round. The candidate who wins a majority in the final round will be elected president.

Lagarde is a big player in the international economy and finance sector who has led the ECB through the French economy minister and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). During former President Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidency, he served as France’s economy minister from 2007 to 2011, and later became the ECB president in 2019.