Death of Jacques Delors, Europe’s last great architect

In recent years, his speech became extremely rare, and his laughing blue eyes were no longer visible behind his stern glasses. Jacques Delors died Wednesday morning at his Paris home “in his sleep,” his daughter Martine Aubry said.

In March 2020, at the beginning of the Covid pandemic, Jacques Delors finally broke his silence. Once again and tirelessly defend the European Union, fearing that the lack of solidarity between states could put it in “mortal danger”, adding with concern that “the germ is back”.

Renewing European construction was the great work of the former President of the European Commission from 1985 to 1995, who followed the line of the “Founding Fathers” at the origins of the Treaty of Rome.

He breathed new life into the Old Continent.

When Jacques Delors arrived in Brussels, the year he turned 60, he had just spent three years as Minister of Economy, Finance and then Budget in the Maurois government, in which he had initiated the “turn of austerity.” François Mitterrand once thought about appointing him to Matignon. Few are betting on the success of this reserved man at a time when the Europe of Ten is mired in immobility and undermined by Euro-pessimism. However, thanks to three principles: “competition that stimulates, cooperation that strengthens and solidarity that unites,” Delors breathed new life into the Old Continent over the course of a decade.

In 1986, he organized the signing by member states of the Uniform Law, which ensures the free movement of people, goods, capital and services. “My favorite treatise,” he said. Having a privileged relationship with Chancellor Helmut Kohl and being a visionary, he also accelerated the entry of the former East German states into Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall, convinced that German reunification would open a new chapter in European construction.

The mastermind behind the single European currency

A pragmatic architect of a Europe then in its golden age, Delors pushed for a system of solidarity towards the continent’s poorest regions, created the Erasmus student programme, reformed the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and launched the European Aid Programme. for the most disadvantaged.

The self-described “active pessimist” since 1989 will also remain the mastermind behind the single European currency. But he will be left without the creation of a European economic government, which he will never stop advocating for. “You can’t fall in love with a big market,” he insisted.

Many on the left are calling for him to run in the 1995 presidential election, especially since he is leading in the polls. His friends from the Temuan club, whose chairman was then a certain Francois Hollande, are stamping their feet. But on December 11, 1994, he announced live on the TF1 channel that he was abandoning his candidacy. A decision that brings to an end five decades of a rich professional life in which he was successively an influential trade unionist, a prominent senior civil servant and then a politician, always reluctant to play the political game.

A journey that caused mistrust

Young Jacques Delors, born on July 20, 1925 in Paris, nevertheless dreamed of becoming a fashion designer, film director or journalist. Finally, at the age of 19, he began working at the Bank of France, encouraged by his father, who worked there as a cash collector. The young man quickly rose through the ranks, while continuing his studies almost self-taught. In 1962 he joined the Master Planning Commission and then in 1969 he joined the cabinet of Gaullist Prime Minister Jacques Chaban-Delmas, where he participated in the development of the “new society” project. A career that caused distrust when he joined the Socialist Party in 1974, for which he was a European MP.

But it was in trade unionism that this left-wing Catholic, passionate about jazz and passionate about sports, truly solidified his commitment. In the CFTC (French Confederation of Christian Workers) since 1945, then in the CFDT. It was also at the Banque de France trade union that Jacques Delors met his wife Marie (who died in June 2020). From their union in 1950 Martine Delors was born, who, under her married name Aubry, became a minister several times, first secretary of the PS and mayor of Lille. And three years later, Jean-Paul Delors died of leukemia at the age of 29, just as he was embarking on a promising career as a journalist. A drama that will forever remain in the memory of Jacques Delors.