In the contest to succeed outgoing European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, the Netherlands has put forward a candidate, and Spain is expected to follow. The race features Klaas Knot from the Netherlands and Pablo Hernández de Cos from Spain as prominent contenders for the position at the institution based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Klaas Knot, aged 59, led the Dutch central bank from 2011 to 2025, which also made him a member of the ECB Governing Council. Knot is regarded as a pragmatic hawk, signifying an advocate for a more restrictive monetary policy. This stance was evident when the eurozone faced financial and debt crises that threatened its survival. Initially, Knot expressed reservations regarding the promise made by then-ECB chief Mario Draghi to save the euro at whatever it takes. Later, however, he revised his view, describing Draghi's famous statement as a decisive turning point in the euro crisis. In subsequent years, Knot openly clashed with Draghi when the ECB introduced extensive stimulus measures to boost inflation during a decade when the inflation rate remained continuously below the ECB target of 2.0 percent. Under Draghi's successor, Lagarde, Knot returned to a more constructive posture, although he urged a tighter monetary policy early on during the major inflation surge in 2022. From late 2021 to mid-2025, Knot additionally served as chair of the Financial Stability Board, an international body responsible for monitoring financial risks.
Pablo Hernández de Cos, aged 55, is considered a moderate monetary dove, representing a proponent of a looser monetary policy stance. Since July 2025, he has led the Bank for International Settlements, known as the bank of central banks. Based in Basel, the institution serves as a forum for central bankers and houses the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, which establishes international capital requirements for banks. Prior to his work in Basel, de Cos served as head of the Spanish central bank from 2018 to 2024, a turbulent period that began with extremely low inflation, followed by the coronavirus pandemic and a phase of interest rate hikes deployed by the ECB to combat soaring inflation. Colleagues describe de Cos as a pragmatic economist, noting that dogmatic thinking is foreign to him, and he is regarded as a pronounced team player. When several of the world's leading central bankers openly backed then-Fed chief Jerome Powell earlier in the year to defend him against political pressure from the White House, de Cos reportedly played a central role.
