FRANKFURT, Germany — It was supposed to be the European Central Bank’s first calm meeting in months. President Mario Draghi was to explain how smoothly the bank’s stimulus program was going.
But just as he began his news conference, a protester startled participants by running from the first row of seats and leaping onto the table in front of him. She hurled what appeared to be confetti and screamed, “End the ECB dictatorship!”
Security guards dragged her off the stage in seconds and took Draghi into a side room.
Draghi returned minutes later looking a little shaken but resumed his statement. He answered questions for an hour.
An ECB statement said “the activist registered as a journalist for a news organization she does not represent.”
Draghi, who didn’t comment on the disruption, said the bank was determined to pursue its existing bond-buying $1.2 trillion stimulus program “until the end of September 2016 and, in any case, until we see a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation.”
Inflation at minus 0.1 percent is way below the ECB’s aim of 2 percent and is a sign of a weak economy.
Draghi also urged eurozone governments to get busy with long-term reforms to make their countries more business-friendly and promote growth.
