Dijsselbloem reappointed eurogroup leader

Dutch finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem was re-elected as eurogroup leader on Friday evening, giving him a second term of 2.5 years.

The only other candidate in the race was the Spanish finance minister Luis de Guindos.

After the vote, Dijsselbloem told a press conference he did not know how many votes he received.

‘The number of votes is not made known within the eurogroup,’ he said. ‘After the voting, it was said I had the most votes and when it was asked if the result could be unanimous, no one objected.’

However, the NRC reports that Dijsselbloem received two-thirds of the votes, with the rest going to De Guindos, the only member who voted against Dijsselbloem in 2013 when he first became eurogroup leader.

Right man

Prime minister Mark Rutte congratulated Dijsselbloem on his Facebook page. ‘The eurogroup performs well under his leadership, and he has worked intensively over the past months to find a solution to the crisis in Greece. He is the right man in the right place.’

The eurogroup holds informal meetings of the finance ministers of the eurozone member states. It has 19 members and exercises political control over the currency and related aspects of the EU’s monetary union such as the Stability and Growth Pact.