(News Bulletin 247) – In 25 years of existence, presidents and presidents of the European Central Bank have made amusing and/or thundering declarations. News Bulletin 247 draws up a short non-exhaustive list.

At 25, we have had time to say a lot of things and deliver a number of startling declarations. The European Central Bank (ECB) just celebrated its 25th birthday with a celebration organized last Wednesday, even though the European institution was officially born on June 1, 1998, some time before the introduction of the euro.

Several leaders have succeeded at the head of this institution which has gone through a number of crises, with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, the sovereign debt crisis in the euro zone, the pandemic and more recently the surge in inflation. During these 25 years, these presidents made some declarations sometimes of capital importance, sometimes very amusing. Here are four examples.

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Mario Draghi’s famous “whatever it takes”

“Within our mandate the ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro”. “As part of its mandate, the ECB is ready to do whatever is necessary to preserve the euro”, Mario Draghi declared at the end of July 2012. The one who will then become President of the Italian Council added “and believe me, that will be enough”.

This sentence has passed into the posterity of monetary policy and is very similar to the “whatever the cost” that will be pronounced years later by Emmanuel Macron. It is perhaps the most striking words ever uttered by a member of the European institution.

Because it occurs in a deleterious context. In the summer of 2012, the euro zone was weakened by the sovereign debt crisis, due to fears of contagion from Greece’s difficulties. “At the time, southern European countries, such as Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal, were facing significant refinancing problems caused by interdependencies between high and persistent budget deficits, widening public debt before the financial crisis and the disappearance of exchange rate mechanisms due to the monetary union”, underlines the asset manager Ethenea.

So much so that the bond yields of the 10-year debt of these countries on the markets soared, while inflation was low. Swiss Life Asset Managers gives the example of Italy which faced a rate of 6.5% in July. For Spain, this yield was close to 7%.

The euro’s survival was at stake and Draghi’s strong words helped ease market fears as bond yields fell. These words will be followed by facts since in September 2012, the ECB will announce the possibility of using the OMT program (outright monetary transactions), unlimited purchases of government bonds on the secondary market, a kind of monetary “bazooka”. Never used, this program will nevertheless be controversial, with appeals to European justice, which will ultimately validate the legality of the program.

There remains this ability of Mario Draghi to reassure the market in three words (“whatever it takes”). To the point of having saved the euro single-handedly? The banker will in any case be designated this year “personality of the year” by the Financial Times.

Christine Lagarde, “an owl” full of wisdom

“I am neither dove nor hawk and my ambition is to be this owl that is often associated with a little bit of wisdom”. “I am neither a dove nor a hawk and my ambition is to be that owl that is often associated with a bit of wisdom”.

We are in December 2019 and Christine Lagarde took up her duties as President of the European Central Bank the previous month. Market observers are wondering how to classify the former managing director of the IMF. Is she a “hawk” or a “dove”?

Refusing to choose one or the other, the central banker thus pleads for a third way of reason, answering questions from journalists during the ECB’s press conference. A way probably also to give pledges to each camp of the board of governors of the central bank. Because, as pointed out then New York TimesMario Draghi’s years of accommodating monetary policies ended up dividing the ECB’s Governing Council.

Recall that in the jargon of monetary policy, a “hawk” is a nickname given to central bankers who are more concerned with price stability and inflation control than employment and growth, unlike the “dove” . The owl, for its part, accompanies the goddess Athena in Greek mythology, a figure of wisdom.

When Trichet evokes football to show the strength of the European economy

“I have said from time to time that one should not underestimate Europe. In soccer, in particular. (…) In the best four there are three European teams – all from the euro area, by the way!” from time to time that Europe should not be underestimated. In football, in particular (…) in the top four, you have three European teams, all from the euro zone by the way!”

Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank from 2003 to 2011, then had fun with a question from a journalist. We are in July 2010, the Football World Cup in South Africa is in full swing. And even if France was pitifully exited in the first round, Germany made it to the semi-finals while Spain and the Netherlands faced each other a few days later in the final. A journalist then asks Jean-Claude Trichet, to “relax the atmosphere”, if he has a favorite (response of the person concerned in a word: no) and if this subject was mentioned during the Board of Governors.

But as pointed out Le Figaro at the time, Jean-Claude Trichet also used the beginning of his answer on football to send a message of confidence on the European situation. He will give other indications, stressing in particular that the growth of the second quarter in the euro zone promises to be better than that of the first. With these optimistic words, the euro appreciates a little against the dollar.

Lagarde’s Thatcher reference

“The lady is not tapering”. This sentence pronounced in September 2021 by Christine Lagarde is difficult to translate. It actually refers to a famous statement by Margaret Thatcher, the “iron lady”, British Prime Minister between 1979 and 1990. In October 1980, the leader uttered a sentence called “the lady is not for turning” lady refuses to back down”) which refers to the fact that Margaret Thatcher refuses to make a U-turn on her policy of liberalizing the economy.

As Societe Generale summed it up at the time, Christine Lagarde pointed out that the European Central Bank was not beginning the “tapering”, that is to say a gradual reduction in its asset purchase program. The banker then evoked a “recalibration” of the pandemic emergency program (PEPP) of the ECB.

By Julien Marion and Paul Louis