FRANKFURT — No one saw this coming.

Eurozone finance ministers on Monday picked Croatia’s central bank governor, Boris Vujčić, as the European Central Bank’s next vice president — defying all expectations and the European Parliament’s calls for someone else.

Ministers chose Vujčić over his Finnish counterpart Olli Rehn, the favorite to win, in the third and final round of voting after seeing off other heavyweight contenders in Portugal’s Mário Centeno and Latvia’s Mārtiņš Kazāks — the Parliament’s preferred picks for the job. Estonia’s Madis Müller and Lithuania’s Rimantas Šadžius lost out in the first round.

At a time when the U.S. administration is putting extreme pressure on the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, the choice of Vujčić — a technocrat with no obvious partisan backing — is a strong signal of the EU’s desire to keep the ECB independent of direct political influence.

Barring any last-minute surprises, EU leaders will formally present Vujčić to succeed incumbent Vice President Luis de Guindos when the Spaniard ends his eight-year term on May 31.

“Crazy,” was all one diplomat could muster after the vote. Others were more understanding. “He is the most senior central banker of them all,” a second said on the condition of anonymity.

Vujčić needed 16 votes from ministers who represent 65 percent of the eurozone’s population, meaning he had the support of the euroclub’s largest members to clinch victory.

Germany, France and Spain will all have been thinking strategically ahead of Monday’s vote, which kicks off a game of musical chairs for a place at the ECB’s coveted six-person Executive Board over the next two years. The vice presidency is the first of four board vacancies, including the presidency, that will come up in that time. All are important positions for the eurozone’s biggest economic powerhouses.

By tapping Vujčić for the no. 2 job, capitals have kept the playing field wide open — especially when it comes to finding a successor for ECB President Christine Lagarde once her term ends on Oct. 31, 2027.

Vujčić now faces an awkward hearing in Parliament, whose non-binding preference for the post was completely ignored by finance ministers. The 61-year-old will need to bring Parliament onside to avoid MEPs voting against his victory in a symbolic, but politically embarrassing, ballot — a similar fate to when Luxembourg’s governor, Yves Mersch, joined the ECB’s highest echelon in 2012.

Dark horse

Vujčić has vast experience as a central banker, having led the Croatian National Bank since 2012, and is highly regarded among fellow rate-setters. But his appointment will still come as a massive surprise to ECB watchers who have long bet on Rehn. Rehn’s dual experience in Brussels politics and monetary policy had widely been seen as giving him an edge over his five rivals.

Croatia’s chances were seen as slim from the outset, as it only joined the eurozone in 2023, placing it toward the back of the queue for a seat at the Executive Board. None of the three Baltic states, which adopted the euro roughly a decade earlier than Croatia, have yet had a representative serve on the Board.

While generally considered a moderate hawk, Vujčić defies the usual northern-hawk-versus-southern-dove classification that has historically dominated debates when politicians haggle over coveted positions at the ECB.

His appointment is thus unlikely to change the probability of either a northern heavyweight such as Germany or the Netherlands, or a southern contender such as Spain, securing the presidency.

Current front-runners for the top job include former Dutch central bank chief Klaas Knot and Bank for International Settlements head Pablo Hernández de Cos. But in European politics, two years is an eternity. Lagarde herself only emerged as a serious candidate late in the process to name a successor for Mario Draghi, showing how fast the ECB’s leadership race can turn.