http://www.money.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2005/08/01/cnduis01.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2005/08/01/ixfrontcity.htmlFormer ECB head Duisenberg found dead in swimming pool
Wim Duisenberg, the first president of the European Central Bank, was found lifeless in a swimming pool yesterday at his country house near Avignon, in the South of France. Rescuers were unable to revive him. French police said it was too early to know the cause of death.
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Mr Duisenberg should have received an eight-year term but agreed to step down half way under a gentleman's agreement - brokered by Tony Blair - to make way for a "Frenchman". President Jacques Chirac had otherwise threatened to block the appointment, an early warning sign that the euro would also be a highly political undertaking.
In the end, France's Jean-Claude Trichet was under investigation for his role in the Crédit Lyonnais affair when the day came, so Mr Duisenberg went into extra time to keep the seat warm.
His tenure at the ECB was clouded by the militant anti-Israeli views of his wife Gretta. She caused outrage by describing Israel's occupation of the West Bank as worse than Nazi rule in Holland, the ultimate taboo in a country where 100,000 Jews were killed during the Holocaust.
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