Belgium, (Brussels Morning Newspaper) A survey shows that European Central Bank (ECB) staff are losing confidence in ECB President Christine Lagarde and other Governing Council members.
The external survey was conducted by the International and European Public Services Organisation (IPSO) trade union, which holds two-thirds of EBC’s staff committee, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
The survey shows that ECB staff is displeased with the leadership’s failure to do its job, which is to maintain price stability in the eurozone, as inflation is significantly above the ECB’s target of 2%.
This is IPSO’s first survey on ECB staff’s trust in top management since Lagarde took the helm of the bank in 2019 and was launched in the context of remote work and pay negotiations.
Failure to perform
IPSO sent the results of the survey to ECB staff on Tuesday, showing that approximately two-thirds of approximately 1,600 respondents are not happy with ECB’s performance.
Their trust in top management has been eroded by persistently high inflation and a pay increase that was more than negated by inflation.
Answering to how much trust they had in Lagarde and the rest of the ECB Governing Council when it came to managing the central bank, 34.3% of respondents said “moderate” and 14.6% said, “high.”
At the same time, 10.5% could not say, 28.6% responded their trust was “low” and 12% said they had “no” trust in top management.
Approximately 63% of respondents expressed concern about ECB’s ability to protect their purchasing power.
The union pointed out in an e-mail “this is a serious concern for our institution, as no one can correctly lead an organization without the trust of its workforce.”
A spokesperson for the ECB declined to comment on the results of IPSO’s survey but pointed out that a survey conducted by the ECB in 2022 showed staff support for top management of 83%.
Lagarde, who did not head a central bank before taking the helm of the ECB and is not an economist, defended the Governing Council in December last year.
Speaking at an event with staff, she stated “if it wasn’t for them I’d be a sad, lonely cowgirl lost somewhere in the Pampa of monetary policy.”
Experts have criticized the ECB for failing to assess inflationary pressure and then trying to compensate with sharp interest rate hikes.
