Gauthier Delomez / Photo credits: ERIC PIERMONT / AFP
Former President of the European Commission Jacques Delors died this Wednesday at the age of 98. This figure of the left will remain particularly known for having given up on running for the presidential election in 1995. Three years earlier, during the vote on the Maastricht Treaty, he spoke on the microphone of Europe 1 about his lack of enthusiasm for becoming a candidate. .
Minister of the Economy under François Mitterrand (1981-1984), President of the European Commission for ten years from 1985 to 1995, Jacques Delors left his mark on the history of French and European politics. This figure of the socialist left, father of Martine Aubry, died this Wednesday at the age of 98. And despite his political commitment, it was for a famous renunciation that he made his name.
Favorite in the polls for the 1995 presidential election, Jacques Delors dampened the hopes of the left by announcing, on television in front of 13 million French people, that he refused to run.
“I choose without hesitation yes to Europe”
And besides, three years before this resounding announcement, the former president of the European Commission had given a small indication of his weak enthusiasm, at the microphone of Europe 1. It is September 1, 1992, before the referendum vote on the Maastricht Treaty (September 20).
“They say to someone: ‘If you went to a desert island, what record and film would you choose?’ You would say to me, ‘you have the choice, either to one day be a candidate for the presidency of the Republic, or to say yes to Europe?’, I would choose yes to Europe without hesitation,” he said. then on Europe 1.