The French government would support the election of the Dutch economist Klaas Knot as the new president of the European Central Bank (ECB), according to Reuters.

Citing sources close to the matter, the newswire reported that France’s support for Knot would be conditional on the election of a French candidate to the role of ECB chief economist.

Christine Lagarde, the current president of the ECB, has repeatedly indicated that she could step down ahead of her term ending in October 2027 to play a role in the French presidential election in due to be held on 2 May 2027.

Isabel Schnabel, a German economist who is currently a member of the ECB’s Executive Board, may step down before her term ends at the end of 2027. On 3 September, the German newspaper Handelsblatt reported that Schnabel could leave her ECB role to pursue a position at the International Monetary Fund.

The current chief economist at the ECB is Philip Lane, due to finish his term in May.

Knot was president of the Netherlands national central bank, the De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), from July 2011 to June 2025. He has previously worked for two years as the director and deputy treasurer general at the Dutch Ministry of Finance and has worked in the banking and economics sector for over 30 years.

From 2021 to 2025, he was also chair of the Financial Stability Board. He is understood to hold similar policy views to those of Lagarde, having opposed her predecessor Mario Draghi’s stimulus programmes.

In 2019, a member of the European parliament told Politico said of Knot: “He’s a super hawk”.

Former executives at the ECB have openly criticised interventions by France and Germany to sway future ECB appointments. Otmar Issing, who was ECB chief economist between 1998 and 2006, told Politico that such lobbying is “not acceptable”.

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