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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – Europeans want to keep their hold on the post of managing director at the International Monetary Fund, which was recently vacated by Dominique Strauss-Kahn after he was charged with sexual assault by a hotel maid.

Names of potential replacements began surfacing over the weekend. British officials supported the replacement of Strauss-Kahn by French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde. Not to be outdone, Mexican officials backed Mexican Central Bank Governor Agustin Carstens for the same position.

British Chancellor George Osborne said Lagarde should be chosen by the IMF board not because she is a European and a French national, but because she is qualified. Osborne said Lagarde displayed real international leadership when she served as chair of the G20 finance ministers this year.

Osborne said Lagarde is the best person to become IMF’s next managing director. The chancellor added that the French finance minister is an advocate of tough austerity measures for nations facing financial problems.

Were Lagarde to win the appointment, she would be the fund’s first female head in six decades.

Mexican Finance Minister Ernesto Cordero, who cited the same argument used by Osborne that Strauss-Kahn’s successor should be selected based on merit and not geography, pushed Carstens for the top IMF post.

Australia, China and South Africa have joined the growing global call for an end to the decades-old gentleman’s agreement that a European should hold the top IMF post and an American head the World Bank. They pushed for an open and transparent selection process to maintain trust, credibility and legitimacy in the fund, whose reputation has been sullied by Strauss-Kahn’s arrest.

The appointment of an IMF managing director is expected to be tackled in the G8 meeting this week. The IMF said it will complete the selection to fill the position by June 30.

Besides Carstens, other candidates mentioned include:

• Montek Singh Ahluwalia – deputy chairman of the Planning Commission in India
• Trevor Manuel – former Finance Minister of South Africa
• Leszek Balcerowicz – who helped oversee Poland’s transition to a free market economy from communism.

Former Turkish Finance Minister Kemal Dervis, who was reportedly on the short list of candidates, said Friday he is not in the running to replace Strauss-Kahn.

Strauss-Kahn is now out of jail on a $1 million cash bond, but is under house arrest in New York.

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