The king is dead; long live the queen. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the French erstwhile managing director of the International Monetary Fund, had not even resigned before Europeans started to coalesce around Christine Lagarde, the French finance minister, as his successor. Gone are past promises of an open selection. The Europeans insist on the principle that what we have we hold. The ancien régime survives.
国王已死;女王万岁。甚至在昔日的国际货币基金组织(IMF)总裁、法国人多米尼克•斯特劳斯-卡恩(Dominique Strauss-Kahn)辞职之前,欧洲人就开始联合推举法国财长克里斯蒂娜•拉加德(Christine Lagarde)作为卡恩的继任者。公开遴选的过往承诺已随风而逝。欧洲人坚持的原则是,我们要坚守既有规则。“旧制度”已经复活。(旧制度:Ancien Régime,指的是由瓦卢瓦王朝到波旁王朝建立的影响法国政治及社会形态的贵族制系统,这套系统在法国大革命中瓦解——译者注)