He is a figure of the European Union who has passed away. The former president of the European Commission, father of the euro and figure of the French left, Jacques Delors, died Wednesday at the age of 98, his daughter Martine Aubry announced to AFP. “He died this morning (Wednesday) at his Paris home in his sleep,” declared the socialist mayor of Lille.
Minister of Economy and Finance under the presidency of François Mitterrand between 1981 and 1984, he was one of the major figures of the left at the end of the 20th century. He nevertheless dashed his camp’s hopes by refusing to run in the 1995 presidential election even though he was the big favorite in the polls, a spectacular renunciation on television in front of 13 million viewers.
“I have no regrets”, but “I am not saying that I was right”, he declared to Le Point in 2021. “I had too great a concern for independence, and I felt different of those around me. My way of doing politics was not the same.”
Figure of the European Union
From Brussels where he remained at the head of the Commission from 1985 to 1995, Jacques Delors played the role of architect in shaping the contours of contemporary Europe: establishment of the single market, signing of the Schengen agreements, Single European Act, launch of the Erasmus student exchange program, reform of the common agricultural policy, start of the Economic and Monetary Union which will lead to the creation of the euro.
With his think tanks, “Club witness” or “Notre Europe” (later becoming “Jacques-Delors Institute” and based in Paris, Brussels and Berlin), he pleaded until the end for a strengthening of European federalism, demanding more of “audacity” at the time of Brexit and attacks from “populists of all kinds”.