Mr. Fernandez, the director general of the Treasury within the Ministry of Economics and Finance, has already been through a similar crisis-management exercise. When Standard Poor’s cut the top credit rating of the U.S. government in early August, most of the French elite were on vacation.
To prevent the American crisis from sending a financial tsunami across the Atlantic, Mr. Fernandez scrambled on a summer Saturday morning to organize a series of emergency calls with his boss, Finance Minister François Baroin, and others in the circle of main policy makers.
Later that day, Mr. Baroin appeared on French television to question the validity of the U.S. downgrade. Mr. Sarkozy interrupted his vacation in a show of engagement. But behind the scenes, it was Mr. Fernandez who took on the heavy lifting.
It was not the first time in the two-year European crisis that Mr. Fernandez has been at the center of the storm. And it will not be the last.
As France and Germany take the lead in trying to keep the euro together, Mr. Fernandez has emerged as one of the top power brokers in Paris, advancing the French position on a range of issues, including the banking sector’s participation in a Greek bailout, the creation of a rescue fund for troubled countries and the recent deal to shore up the foundations of the euro currency union.
So much confidence has been placed in Mr. Fernandez that the French press have started calling him the “guardian of the triple-A.” At 44, a youthful technocrat whose soft blue eyes belie an inner sang-froid, Mr. Fernandez chuckles about the nickname with an almost embarrassed air. “I’m a civil servant,” he says demurely. “I do what I have to do.”
What he must do now could prove crucial to how France bears the brunt of the shock should the country be downgraded. Because the event has been widely telegraphed, Mr. Fernandez and other officials do not expect the impact to be devastating. Still, it will probably make it more expensive for France to service its debt, and more difficult for the Europe-wide rescue fund — of which France is a major backer — to operate. That could renew tension between France and Germany over how to manage the problem.
Indeed, For every photo opportunity in which Mr. Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany trumpet a new step forward in the euro crisis, Mr. Fernandez has spent countless hours behind the scenes with the other go-to man on the French team, Xavier Musca, Mr. Sarkozy’s chief of staff, and Berlin’s point man, Jörg Asmussen, the deputy finance minister, smoothing rough patches in the sometimes testy French-German relationship.
Meanwhile, Mr. Fernandez exchanges e-mails frequently with officials at the U.S. Treasury Department to keep current on developments across the Atlantic. His ability to parse mind-numbing financial issues better than nearly any other French civil servant helped French leaders look smart during the meeting of the Group of 20 leading economies that France hosted this year.
For all of his responsibilities, Mr. Fernandez barely registers on the public radar. That is the way he likes it. In a country where discretion is a highly prized commodity, his effectiveness comes from operating in the shadows.
“Ramon is the right man in the right place,” said Christine Lagarde, who worked with Mr. Fernandez until last summer, when she resigned as the French finance minister to become the managing director of the International Monetary Fund. “He is smart, experienced, a good negotiator, but also a critical part of a close-knit network of advisers to the leading political figures.”
In December, Mr. Sarkozy made Mr. Fernandez a chevalier of the French Legion of Honor, calling him a pillar in the management of France’s future.
Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=566bea3a7e8309ef73dd176707558aac
Speak Your Mind
You must be logged in to post a comment.