Speech by Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB, at the first Journée de réseaux de femmes dans la santé en Région Sud in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur organised by Agence Régionale de Santé in Aix-en-Provence, France

Aix-en-Provence, 4 June 2026

It is a pleasure to be here in Aix-en-Provence to mark the launch of Essenti’Elles Santé for Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur. Today is about the women who are shaping healthcare in this region.

For most of history, societies have been readier to raise women up as symbols than to let them lead.

We do not have to look far for an example. Aix’s most famous landmark, the Fontaine de la Rotonde, is crowned by three female figures: Justice, Agriculture and the Fine Arts – symbols of this city’s highest aspirations when it was built in the mid-nineteenth century.

You will find such figures on monuments across France and well beyond it: Marianne presides over our town halls; Liberty raises her torch above the harbour of New York. Societies have…