Dijsselbloem to learn on Friday if he will be next head of IMF

Former finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem will learn on Friday if he is to succeed Christine Lagarde as head of the International Monetary Fund. Dijsselbloem was finance minister in Mark Rutte’s second cabinet between 2012 and 2017 and Centeno’s predecessor as Eurogroup chairman, where he was best known for his handling of the Greek financial crisis. Varoufakis gave his own account of events in his book, Adults in the Room, in which he derided Dijsselbloem as a poodle of German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble and resembling ‘a schoolboy who had been given a rebuke by a strict teacher.’ Dijsselbloem also raised the hackles of southern European politicians with his infamous ‘Schnapps and women’ remark in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, when he suggested that some countries had been too lax with their budgetary discipline. Dijsselbloem is reported to be favoured by several German officials and has been described as an ‘ideal candidate’ by Karel Lanoo, CEO of the Brussels-based Centre for European Policy Studies.