Who should succeed Mario Draghi as president of the European Central Bank? That is the most important decision European governments will take this year. It is more important even than how they deal with an idiotic UK. It is more important than dealing with Donald Trump. It is more important than who will be presidents of the commission or council. The next president of the ECB might determine whether there is a eurozone, perhaps an EU, at the end of the term in 2027. Mr Draghi’s period has been that important. His successor’s might be equally so.
In October 2011, I wrote an open letter to Mr Draghi. I argued the ECB must be a lender of last resort in markets for public debt, thereby also stabilising the banks. I concluded that the “eurozone risks a tidal wave of fiscal and banking crises. The European Financial Stability Facility cannot stop this. Only the ECB can. As the sole eurozone-wide institution, it has the responsibility. It also has the power. I am sorry, Mario. But you face a choice between pleasing the monetary hawks and saving the eurozone. Choose the latter. Explain why you are making the choice. And remember: fortune favours the bold.”
Mr Draghi did the right things, above all with his celebrated remark in July 2012 that “within our mandate, the ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro”.