Europe-Wide Impact Likely From Cyprus Bank Leadership NICOSIA, Cyprus - A fight over leadership of the Cypriot central bank could have repercussions throughout the European Union. The nation's left-wing president, Demetris Christofias, is expected soon to appoint an economist who has called for Germany to leave the euro zone. The economist, Panicos Demetriades, a professor of economics at the University of Leicester in Britain, argues that the strong German economy drives up the value of the euro and makes it hard for other members of the currency union to be competitive. That view is close to heresy at the European Central Bank. Mr. Demetriades would succeed Athanasios Orphanides, a former senior advisor to the board of governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve who has also been an influential voice on the governing council of the European Central Bank. He was even a dark-horse candidate last year to become the E.C.B."s president. But Mr. Orphanides, known for his bluntness, alienated the Cypriot government by accusing it of failing to cut spending fast enough. His likely departure has dismayed policy makers and business people inside and outside Cyprus. Michalis Sarris, chairman of the biggest bank in Cyprus, said that the failure to reappoint Mr. Orphanides, whose renewable term expires at the end of the month, would send a bad signal abroad and reduce the country's influence on the E.C.B. council. "We have a star there now," Mr. Sarris said. Mr. Orphanides and Mr. Demetriades declined to comment.