. . . Two EU ministers ditch IMF chief

European to succeed him as IMF chief.
“Given the refusal to grant him bail, he must think about the damage he’s causing to the institution” by not resigning, said Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter at EU talks on the euro debt crisis.
Spain’s Finance Minister Elena Salgado, when asked whether Strauss-Kahn should resign, said: “The decision is up to Mr Strauss-Kahn in the first place.”
But, referring to the allegations against him, she added that “the crimes are extraordinarily serious.”
Salgado had said when two days of talks on the euro crisis opened that “my solidarity is with the woman who suffered an attack, if that’s really what happened.”
Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg prime minister heading the eurozone, said he was “sad and upset” over the court appearance of his friend Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and angered by those already seeking a successor.
“He’s a good friend of mine, I didn’t like the pictures I saw on TV this morning,” Juncker said. “it makes me deeply, deeply sad.”
Juncker, who worked with Strauss-Kahn in flying to the rescue of debt-hit euro nations over the last year, also said it was “indecent” that some European governments had already raised the question of who should take his place.
Germany opened the battle to find a new head for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), with Chancellor Angela Merkel saying that “in the current situation, there are good reasons to say that Europe has good candidates.” – AFP.