Lagarde faces backlash over ECB's 'one-sided' views on climate change

ECB staff remain extremely dissatisfied with Ms Lagarde's performance as president. Photo: Frédéric Florin/AFP

Christine Lagarde faces growing backlash from European Central Bank (ECB) staff over her «one-sided» views on climate change policy.

In a letter published The Telegraph, the ECB's staff committee complained that the board's comments. A statement calling for the need to «reprogram» staff unable to accept the bank's climate policies struck an «undeniable authoritarian note».

Frank Elderson, a member of the ECB's board, said internally staff workshop in February: “Why would we hire people that we have to reprogram because they came from top universities but they still don’t know how to do it?” to write the word «climate».

The comments have heightened tensions between ECB management and disgruntled staff, who are overwhelmingly dissatisfied with Ms Lagarde's performance as president.

The staff committee said that «many colleagues were shocked by the choice of words and the point of view of Mr Elderson.»

The letter said: “The idea of ​​'reprogramming' people goes against, and goes beyond, diversity and inclusion, especially diversity of thought. It has an undeniably authoritarian character and is in direct conflict with the democratic values ​​that the ECB and the European Union stand for.”

Last week the committee sent a letter to senior management, who then circulated it to everyone. Employees on Monday. According to sources, around 1,600 staff had already read it within two hours.

This follows an ECB union survey conducted at the end of January, in which staff described Ms Lagarde as “autocratic” and “woke”. with most describing her performance as “very bad” or “poor.”

An ECB insider told The Telegraph: “She's making one mistake after another. Most of the time she talked about things that had nothing to do with monetary policy when inflation was 10 percent. [Employees] see a lot of hypocrisy. Diversity? Yes, but we're going to reprogram you. Changing of the climate? Oh yes, but she travels around the world for things that have nothing to do with monetary policy.»