Lagarde, Le Maire and Moscovici: their ‘return’ to ‘contribute to the debate’

Paris. There is a common thread linking the latest moves by Christine Lagarde, Bruno Le Maire and Pierre Moscovici, all of whom share a past at the helm of the Ministry of Economy and Finance: the desire to restore competence and vision to the heart of the French political debate, which is increasingly polarised and at the mercy of extremists. With less than six months to go before the 2027 presidential elections, three figures who have held prominent positions in French and European institutions in recent years are aiming to ‘return’ to their homeland: not necessarily by standing as candidates, but by steering the debate towards pro-European and reformist positions, influencing decisions and thus helping to shape the country’s future political landscape.

Lagarde is the most emblematic case. On Thursday, she announced that she will step down as President of the European Central Bank on 7 February 2027, some nine months before the natural end of her term. This decision is motivated by a desire to “regain freedom of speech, freedom of expression and the freedom to engage with issues beyond monetary policy”, which her current role prevents her from doing. “I feel I have things to say and I cannot do so in my current position,” she said. Back in July, in an interview with Les Echos, she had already expressed her concern about the state of the French political debate and the prospect of a Europhobic France should one of the two extremist parties – Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s La France insoumise on the left and Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement national on the right – come to power at the Élysée Palace. “I believe a European voice must be heard in the French presidential debate. If a perspective were to emerge in this debate that weakens France’s roots within Europe, we would need to explain why this would be a painful path for our country and for our fellow citizens,” she told Les Echos. For now, Lagarde has ruled out the possibility of standing for the Élysée. Some are already tipping her to head to Davos to take the post vacated by Klaus Schwab, who stepped down as president of the World Economic Forum last April; others, however, say that the campaign for the French presidential election has only just begun and that many things could happen between now and next spring that might make her candidacy a credible prospect.

Bruno Le Maire, another figure with grand ambitions for 2027, having served as Macron’s Minister for the Economy for seven years (2017–2024), considers Lagarde the ideal candidate at a time when the country is facing out-of-control debt, a deficit exceeding 5 per cent of GDP and anaemic growth. “I am enthusiastic because I believe that, of all the people who can legitimately aspire to the highest office, that of head of state (…), Christine Lagarde is one of the few figures who, in my view, possess such qualities,” Le Maire told LCI. Currently, Sarkozy’s former Secretary for European Affairs is observing the French political debate from Switzerland, where, since September 2024, he has been a professor of Public Policy, Geopolitics and Sustainable Economic Transition at the Enterprise for Society (E4S) research centre in Lausanne. However, he has not ruled out taking part in the centrist primaries proposed by Renaissance secretary Gabriel Attal, and in July he made his first concrete contribution to the debate with the publication of a 60-page text entitled: “L’An I – Manifeste pour une autre France”. In the manifesto, Le Maire proposes the creation of a “Federation of nation-states” limited to six key countries: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland and the Netherlands, conceived as a strong political and economic core to overcome the current decision-making deadlock within the 27-member EU.

Finally, there is Pierre Moscovici, the former European Commissioner and Minister for the Economy under Hollande, who on 22 October announced his resignation from the European Court of Auditors, where he had taken up his post on 1 January 2026 for a six-year term. His brief tenure was due to family reasons – the difficulty of balancing his private life with the move to Luxembourg – but also to a desire to regain his freedom of speech so that he could contribute to the public debate in France, like Lagarde, “during the difficult, if not downright tragic, period that lies ahead”. In January, he will publish a book on public debt, the state, institutions and Europe. It is almost a manifesto for the presidential elections.