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French President Emmanuel Macron has nominated his former chief of staff to head the country’s central bank, in his latest move to fill key posts with allies ahead of an uncertain 2027 presidential election.
Emmanuel Moulin, whose nomination as Bank of France governor was announced by the Élysée Palace on Tuesday, until recently served as Macron’s key presidential adviser, overseeing everything from economic to geopolitical issues.
The far-right Rassemblement National is polling strongly in the race to succeed Macron next year, and one person close to Macron said he wanted to protect key independent institutions from potential interference.
The Bank of France governor holds a seat on the European Central Bank’s governing council, so their views can influence monetary policy in the Eurozone. In France, the central bank supervises banks and the production of key economic analysis and forecasts.
Moulin has an accomplished record in the French civil service — having run the Treasury and held senior posts at the finance ministry. He was also an adviser to President Nicolas Sarkozy during the Eurozone crisis.
But Moulin’s nomination, which will need to be approved by a divided parliament in which Macron’s coalition government has no majority, is likely to raise hackles among opposition parties.
They have accused Macron of stuffing key institutions with loyalists, claiming the president has engaged in cronyism that they nickname “the republic of pals”.
Éric Coquerel, the far-left member of parliament who heads the finance committee in the National Assembly that must confirm Moulin’s nomination, said he would vote against him.
“The Banque de France is an institution whose independence is one of its main pillars,” he added.
“Mr Moulin’s recent career . . . guarantees almost the opposite, given [his] dependence on the current executive and clear risks in terms of the neutrality of a person very close to members of the current and previous governments.”
If approved, Moulin would replace the incumbent governor, François Villeroy de Galhau, who has said he will step down in June — more than a year early — to take a position running a charity. He has denied being asked to leave.
But Villeroy de Galhau’s exit cleared the way for Macron, rather than whoever wins the presidential election next year, to pick his successor.
Macron has already appointed Richard Ferrand, a former senior MP who was an early and influential supporter, as president of the Constitutional Council. Parliament approved Ferrand’s nomination by a narrow margin.
In February, Macron named another loyalist, the budget minister Amélie de Montchalin, to head the auditor Cour des comptes, which will mean she is supposed to independently review spending plans that she helped to write.
Moulin will be questioned by the finance committees of both the National Assembly and the Senate on May 20.
Under Article 13 of the French constitution, Macron’s nomination of Moulin can be blocked if three-fifths of the members of both committees vote it down. It is a relatively high threshold, so no central bank head has ever been rejected.
Central bank heads in France are nominated for six-year terms, which can be renewed once.
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