Centeno, Portugal’s finance minister wins race to eurogroup presidential presidency

Harvard educated economist, Mario Centeno, 50, the Portuguese finance minister, has won the race to become president of the influential Eurogroup, one of the most senior policy-making posts.

He gained support from a majority of euro-zone finance ministers over two rounds of voting in Brussels yesterday and beat rivals from Slovakia, Latvia, and Luxembourg. He will take over in January 2018, when Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the former Dutch minister steps down after five years.

The high-profile post involves brokering sovereign bailout deals with steering discussions on economic reforms and chairing monthly meetings of the bloc’s 19 finance ministers.

In the past, the finance ministers’ gatherings provided a forum for bailout deals for Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Cyprus. During the sovereign debt crisis.

Mr. Centeno will serve a two-and-a-half year term, becomes the first elected Eurogroup president from a southern member state and the first to represent a former bailout economy.

Portugal in the past has exited the eurozone’s excessive deficit procedure for the first time in eight years and has now the lowest public finances gap in four decades. Portugal’s governing Socialist Party describer Mr. Centeno’s election as a recognition that there is an alternative to austerity policies, that within European rules there is another way.

Mr. Centeno defeated Luxembourg’s Pierre Gramegna in the final round of voting.  Slovakia’s Peter Kazimir and Latvia’s Dana Reizniece-Ozola withdrew after the first round.