It wasn’t hard to see what was in it for President Nicolas Sarkozy when he appointed Christine Lagarde as France’s new finance minister in June this year. After a glittering career in international law, Lagarde had become a star in American business circles: the 30th most powerful woman in the world, according to that ultimate arbiter of commercial influence, Forbes; the fifth best female executive in Europe, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Sarkozy, like all modern politicians, is obsessed with symbols and narratives. In Lagarde, he had his storyline made flesh. Look, he’s saying — we’re changing. This is not the old, closed-for-a-four-hour-lunch, anti-globalisation France. This is the new, power-breakfasting, 24/7, change-embracing France. And to prove it, we’ve installed the first women finance minister of a Group of Seven economy, and one who made her career in the United States as well. Very smart, and very Sarkozy.
But what, I wonder, is in it for her? Sitting in the breakfast room of the palatial finance ministry in the Bercy district — naturally we were meeting for breakfast at eight sharp — Lagarde appears unflappable. She is a tall, thin woman with immaculately cut grey hair, an easy manner and a gentle sense of humour.
She listens with a half-smile when I suggest, politely, that running Northern Rock’s bond-sales operation might be a better job than finance minister of France: less chance of going bust, better paid, and probably a lot easier. You half sense she might well agree.
‘I like challenges,’ she answers, with just a hint of sarcasm. ‘I was working in America, and I was getting very annoyed with the view that France was in decline. And of course it’s very flattering when the prime minister of your country asks if you can help.’
But after running the international activities of a major US law firm, Baker & McKenzie, surely the bureaucracy of a big French ministry must come as something of a shock? ‘It was mind-boggling,’ she replies.
Comments
Join the debate for just £1 a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just £1 a monthAlready a subscriber? Log in