AMSTERDAM (BLOOMBERG) – The Dutch government is campaigning for former finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem to be the next managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), according to a person familiar with the matter.

The senior euro-area crisis veteran is one of a handful of names currently in discussion to preserve Europe’s traditional hold on the IMF role.

Others include Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, Bank of Finland Governor Olli Rehn, Portuguese Finance Minister Mario Centeno, who chairs meetings of euro-area peers, and his Spanish counterpart, Nadia Calvino.

Several possible candidates are already calling key finance ministries to drum up support, according to a senior European Union official.

European finance chiefs attending a Group of Seven (G-7) meeting in Chantilly, France, have been pondering names for the role at the sidelines of the gathering and will keep talking about it over dinner.

There is “a series of possible male and female candidates being discussed,” German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz told reporters on Wednesday.

“A successor must be proposed very quickly. There will be a pleasant surprise.”

IMF managing director Christine Lagarde of France will step down on Sept 12 to become president of the European Central Bank once Mario Draghi leaves at the end of October.

The fund’s last 11 leaders all came from Europe.

CRISIS COVERAGE

The appointment of Dijsselbloem, 53, would put a seasoned crisis manager at the top of the Washington-based lender at a time when the global economy is at its weakest in a decade – and increasingly threatened by international trade tensions.

He served as Dutch finance minister between 2012 and 2017, and gained prominence in 2013 after he became head of the Eurogroup, now led by Centeno.

From that post Dijsselbloem spearheaded the bloc’s efforts to navigate the sovereign debt crisis, including striking bailout agreements for Cyprus and Greece.

In 2015, he led testy negotiations with Athens, which included the IMF, that nearly saw the country leave the euro area.

He also oversaw difficult talks on creating a euro-area banking union, including common supervision and resolution frameworks for the bloc’s largest banks.

His tenure at the helm of the currency bloc wasn’t always smooth, especially in his early days on the job when a decision for a levy on Cypriot depositors, including insured ones, was heavily criticised – and eventually changed.

He also drew the ire of Europe’s south over remarks linking the euro-area crisis to southern European spending on “women and drinks.”

But over the years his handling of the euro area’s subsequent crises and his ability to strike delicate compromises earned him the respect of his fellow finance ministers and of top officials at other key institutions such as the ECB.

Many of his counterparts considered him a fair and skilled moderator with a knack for bridging often very diverging positions.

EUROPEAN CANDIDATES

He didn’t take any other high-profile public office posts after his Eurogroup term ended in January 2018, partly because his Labor party performed poorly in the Dutch elections and was left out of the governing coalition.

Earlier this year, in May, he became chairman of the Dutch Safety Board, which can investigate specific industrial incidents as well as broader safety issues.

EU finance ministers have expressed a desire for the bloc to unite behind a single candidate and other highly-qualified choices could still get the nod.

Many of the people linked to the role are current or former euro-area finance chiefs.

Spain’s Calvino said on Wednesday that she has discussed her potential candidacy for the IMF with acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. She is happy in her current position and has no plans to move on from it, she told Cadena Ser radio.

Carney of the BOE is seen as a highly qualified candidate, though officials have questioned whether he’s “European enough” to get the bloc’s support.

“We can sleep tight because if any of those names that are being talked about today are appointed at the head of the IMF, we’ll be in good hands,” Angel Gurria, secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, told Bloomberg Television at the G-7 meeting.

Europe may yet face a challenge on its bid to keep the job.

Emerging-market countries have made a pitch before, only to split over who to support and then lose out.

Ultimately though, that’s because the US backed the European candidate as part of the unspoken pact that leaves the World Bank presidency in American hands.

Former US Treasury official David Malpass recently took the helm of that institution as European governments assented to President Donald Trump’s nominee.

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