德国总理默克尔为什么希望IMF拉加德出任欧盟主席

Europe is not quite the basket case it was a few years ago. But with low-as-you-can-go-growth, mounds of debt, throngs of unemployed youth and a rising tide of Euroskepticism, the European Union, to put it kindly, is still in a tough spot.

如今的欧洲已经不再是几年前那个毫无希望的人。但一点点经济增长、一大堆债务、大批失业的年轻人和欧元怀疑论不断升温，欧盟往好了说也仍旧困难重重。

As if the above didn’t make it obvious already, it’s also in need of a strong leader.

如果上面这些还说得不够清楚，换句话说，欧盟还需要一位强大的领袖。

In theory, Europe has a spot at the top in which a real leader might sit and wield some gavel of authority, clarity, and resolute power—and that is the high office of President of the European Commission.

理论上欧洲有一个最高职位，一位真正的领袖可以在这个位置上施展权威，廓清迷雾，行使绝对权力——这个职位就是欧盟委员会（European Commission）主席一职。

In reality, Europe has nothing of the kind. Which would explain why few but his immediate family and a handful of bureaucrats in Brussels know precisely who the current holder of that office is. (For the record, it’s Jose-Manuel Barroso, a former Prime Minister of Portugal, law professor, and one-time student at Georgetown.)

但事实上，欧洲根本没有这样一个职位。这可以解释为什么只有他的直系近亲与布鲁塞尔的几位官员明确知道目前的欧盟委员会主席到底是谁。（他就是若泽-曼努埃尔o巴罗佐，葡萄牙前总理，法学教授，曾在美国乔治敦大学求学。）

All of which brings us to Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and No. 13 on Fortune’s 2014 list of the 50 World’s Greatest Leaders. There are some who now hope that Lagarde will emerge as a candidate for the European Commission presidency—whose role is to oversee the body that proposes and enforces EU laws—when the current office-holder’s second five-year term ends later this year.

由此，人们将目标投向了国际货币基金组织总裁克里斯蒂娜o拉加德，2014年《财富》全球50位领导力榜样排行榜排名第13。有些人希望，今年晚些时候现任欧盟主席结束第二个5年任期后，拉加德能成为候选人，负责管理欧盟立法和执法机构。

One such booster, apparently, is Angela Merkel, Germany’s well-regarded Chancellor (and No. 2 on Fortune’s World’s Greatest Leader list), who reportedly pressed Lagarde to run for the job.

显然，德国总理安吉拉o默克尔就是这样的一位支持者（默克尔在《财富》全球50为领导力榜样榜单中排名第二）。报道称，她力推拉加德竞争这个职位。

The path to the position is hardly straightforward. Merkel raised the matter with French President Francois Hollande, who generally speaking would be the one to put Lagarde forward as a candidate—something Hollande, who is loathe to lose a compatriot at the powerful IMF, is unlikely to do. So, technically, for Lagarde to be considered, she would likely have to be nominated by one or another pan-European political parties.

通往这个职位的道路并非没有曲折。默克尔与法国总统弗朗索瓦o奥朗德提起过这事，一般而言，应该由法国总统提名拉加德为候选人。但奥朗德可能不会这么做，他绝不想在有实权的IMF中失去一位亲法者。因此，从技术层面，如果拉加德要加入候选人行列，她可能必须获得一个泛欧政党的提名。

Later this month, European leaders will choose from such candidates. As per the EU’s purportedly more democratic rules, they must factor into their decisions the results of May’s parliamentary election. The emergent nominee must then win majority approval of the European parliament.

本月晚些时候，欧洲领导人们将从这些候选人中做出选择。按欧盟据称更为民主的条例，他们的最终决定必须考虑5月份的欧洲议会选举结果。获得提名的人选必须获得欧洲议会多数通过。

May’s election results suggest that the favorite may well be Jean-Claude Juncker, a former prime minister of Luxembourg and an old-school European federalist, who Merkel initially backed. The United Kingdom’s David Cameron, however, has been openly opposed to Juncker. Hence, the backroom negotiations that led to the conversation between Merkel and Hollande, according to reports.

5月份的选举结果显示，最受欢迎的很可能是前卢森堡总理让-克洛德o容克，也是默克尔起初支持的一位老派欧洲联邦主义者。但英国的戴维o卡梅伦已经公开表示反对容克。因此，报道称，种种幕后角力导致了默克尔与奥朗德之间的对话。

Getting involved in all that politicking merely to join ranks with a mélange of underweight Eurocrats, may sound like a step back for Lagarde, whose star has been rising on the international stage ever since she replaced the disgraced Dominique Strauss-Kahn as the “World’s Banker” in 2011. And, well, it probably is.

参与这些政治斗争，泯然于一群无足轻重的欧洲官员之列，对于拉加德而言可能是一种倒退。自从2011年她取代斯文扫地的多米尼克o斯特劳斯o卡恩成为“世界的银行家”后，她就已经成了国际舞台上冉冉升起的明星。嗯，可能就是这样。

Indeed, Lagarde has said she is not interested in the presidency. Her current job, after all, affords her a platform from which she wields considerable influence in a global conversation on the world’s most pressing issues—from rising income inequality to banking reforms to climate change.

确实，拉加德已经表态，她对主席一职不感兴趣。毕竟，她当前的职务为她提供了一个很好的平台，让她可以就全球最紧迫的一些事务在国际对话中施加相当的影响力。这些事务涵盖了从收入不平等加剧，到银行改革，再到气候变化的大量问题。

Still, one can’t blame Merkel for trying. The German Chancellor and many other top European leaders have no doubt been spooked by the dramatic gains made by anti-EU parties in late May’s elections. Lagarde, meanwhile, is regarded as a consensus-builder who can contend with the increasing dissatisfaction among EU member states—in three years Britain plans to hold a referendum on its membership—and bring positive change to the organization.

不过，人们也不能怪默克尔有这样的想法。这位德国总理以及欧洲其他很多最高领导人们无疑都被5月底欧洲议会选举中反欧盟党派支持率的飙升给吓坏了。与此同时，拉加德还被视为共识缔造者，她能够应对欧盟成员国日益滋长的不满情绪（英国计划在3年内就欧盟成员身份举行全民公投），同时给欧盟组织带来积极的改变。

If for some reason the EU Presidency doesn’t work out, of course, there’s always the role of President of the European Council. Or President of the European Parliament. Chances are you don’t know who holds these grand offices either. But hey, we’ll give you a hint: One of them used to be a Prime Minister of Belgium.

当然，如果欧盟主席因为某种原因不起作用，总还有欧洲理事会主席这个职位。再或者，还有欧洲议会主席。或许大家还不知道这些主席是谁。我们可以给你一点提示：他们中的一位曾经是比利时首相。（财富中文网）