Controversy at the ECB: workers suspend Lagarde inside and outside the institution

She has been one of the most powerful women in the world for years: as French Finance Minister, president of the IMF or head of the ECB.

However, Christine Lagarde is not so popular intramurals, among the staff at the Frankfurt headquarters.

A report prepared by the Eurobank union, the IPSO, shows the discontent of the staff with the internal management of the French company.

But if Jean-Claude Trichet or Mario Draghi could justify neglecting that work to focus on monetary policy decisions, in the eyes of employees, Lagarde cannot do so.

In fact, 50.6% of the workers who responded to the survey also do not believe that the head of the ECB is a good president.

The report has generated discomfort at the top of the monetary authority.

A spokeswoman said the survey is “deficient” and criticized that it addresses issues that are not within the union's remit.

Last November, European media and analysts published their assessments of Lagarde's mid-term.

The head of the ECB herself did it.

And she intoned the

mea culpa

by considering that Frankfurt should have more quickly recognized the inflationary tensions, which would end up unleashing the largest rate hike in the history of the institution.

“I should have been bolder,” she said in an interview in the

Financial Times

.

The unions have now carried out their examination of the Frenchwoman's first four years.

And the results are not encouraging for the head of the ECB, whose employees suspend her both inside and outside the entity.

The survey, which was carried out by Reuters and to which EL PAÍS has had access, received 1,159 responses from employees of the institution, which has 5,080 workers and interns, according to the entity itself.

Additionally, 375 people submitted qualitative comments.

The IPSO union has published them all, even those that criticize the survey.

“This is not a fair questionnaire […].

“This is populism instead of serious criticism,” says one of the opinions.

Some Eurobank officials also warned that Lagarde would face fiercer criticism for being a woman.

“Our surveys are normally criticized by the ECB.

This time it has not been different,” the union defends in the document, which has seen how this time the leadership of the entity has charged against the document by including an analysis of Lagarde's presidency and her monetary policy.

The survey reveals the internal dissatisfaction with Lagarde.

This is very high in chapters such as staff career prospects (81.7% against), the protection of purchasing power (77.7%) or transparency in transfers and the perception of favoritism (73.1%). .

In fact, the French woman already encountered the union's threat to go on strike in December 2022 over the salary increase that the French woman then offered them.

There Lagarde has not improved the performance of her predecessors, whose internal management did not receive the approval of the

staff either.

However, both Jean-Claude Trichet (64.3%) and Mario Draghi (75.5%) deserved the approval of his presidency.

That is, their performance as heads of the Eurobank.

This is not the case with Lagarde: 50.6% of those surveyed believe that his mandate is being “poor” or “very poor.”

The majority (57.3%) of the ECB staff supports that Lagarde has included climate objectives within the entity's mandate.

However, 63.9% do not believe that the Frenchwoman has strengthened the reputation of the institution and 53.5% do not consider that she is the appropriate president for this moment.

“Misuse of resources”

The president does not fare better in the comments, which were responded to by an already smaller group of employees.

According to the document prepared by the union, workers generally describe Lagarde as an “autocratic leader” who “too often frequents the political sphere.”

“Respondents also report their perception that they would be misusing the institution's resources to improve their own personal image, possibly for their next career move,” the text states, adding: “A minority of respondents "They are inspired by her and praise her external communication skills."

An ECB spokeswoman replied to the document: “The president and the board are fully focused on their mandate and have implemented policies to respond to unprecedented events in recent years, such as the pandemic and wars.”

She added: “The ECB receives information from its staff through regular surveys carried out in accordance with professional standards, and will continue to do so.”

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