REPLAY: French President Emmanuel Macron pays tribute to Jacques Delors
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00:00 French president at the microphone now delivering a eulogy of Jacques Delors.
00:03 Let's listen in.
00:04 On the 27th of December last year,
00:09 that was the end of his path, his journey, the journey of life
00:14 that never at any turn of the century
00:21 played up what was expected.
00:27 Yes, his life was always going
00:32 on different paths away from the main road,
00:37 uncovering new visions,
00:41 working with his companions,
00:44 a life of journeys and characters
00:48 that can be found in the streets of many Montag
00:52 on those lands of Paris and Corrèze in Paris,
00:57 in places where decisions were made in Clichy,
01:01 in Brussels, so many capitals of our Europe,
01:04 and Paris and the Saint-Jacques Street.
01:07 Those paths laid down a journey of republican meritocracy.
01:15 His grandparents were peasants.
01:18 His mother made his father work at the Bank of France,
01:23 and he learned from them to make efforts.
01:26 He went on these journeys and those acted as a,
01:30 what acted as a compass was his faith,
01:33 opening himself to others,
01:38 having a liking for duty before a liking for power.
01:45 And those strong words from his father,
01:49 who was mutilated during the first war
01:52 and who said, "We have to reconcile."
01:55 So from the Massif Central to the European Parliament,
02:01 Jacques Delors never tried
02:04 of exploring in order for people to reconcile.
02:08 He was a light ahead of his time.
02:12 He would find alternatives.
02:15 He would build bridges, always going to that immutable horizon
02:19 that was more than anything else for him, human dignity.
02:23 That was his deep conviction,
02:27 fed by Catholic thinking from Emmanuel Mounier,
02:33 between the dictatorship of masses and the imperialism
02:38 of individualism, there's another way.
02:41 That of the human person with its freedom to commit
02:46 and its responsibility to society.
02:48 There is a way, a humanist way for Europe.
02:53 And that's what he chose.
02:56 His fight first was to reconcile with itself
03:04 a society that was blocked through trade unions,
03:08 CFTC, CFDT.
03:10 Politics was not important, was not among his youth passions.
03:18 The prognosis of the Tour de France,
03:22 basketball games, jazz and God.
03:27 Yes, those were his main interests, but not politics.
03:31 When he was a teenager, he thought of cinema, of journalism
03:38 and political leaders were seen as responsible
03:43 for the defeat of 1940, for the defeat of the French people
03:48 on fleeing on roads.
03:52 But fate was otherwise.
03:57 He could reconcile.
04:00 He was capable and he became a decision maker.
04:05 And increasingly, he went further up in the Bank of France.
04:09 He also worked within its trade union.
04:14 And at night, after working at the bank,
04:19 he would open up his books and study
04:24 the theories of economists
04:28 and fighting his way through competitions.
04:33 He went to the Social and Economic Council
04:37 and Eric Massey was attracted by him and hired him.
04:42 And he went on
04:46 reconciling his aspirations as a leftist
04:51 and also as a Gaullist who wanted to plump for regeneration.
04:57 He was selected in 1969 by Chabondelmas
05:02 rather than a plumping for a left that seemed to be defeated for a long time.
05:07 He wanted a new society.
05:09 He was the first social advisor at Matignon.
05:12 That's where he found how he could develop his thinking
05:19 to modernize society, to place justice within labor,
05:24 to develop a contractual policy
05:28 based on collective agreements so that those who didn't have the opportunity
05:33 to learn could keep on learning during their life and participate
05:37 in the first line of lifelong education.
05:42 Always bent on reconciling, reconciliation.
05:47 Reconciling the French with work to show them that it was a way
05:52 to emancipation, knowledge, lifelong training
05:57 so that everyday working should not be slavery,
06:01 should not be just physical work, but also a way to go further up.
06:07 To reconcile even further,
06:11 he joined the Socialist Party in 1974
06:17 at that time of opening, and then he plumped for the social market economy
06:25 to aim for an alternative.
06:30 Ten years on, he also
06:35 went away from clannish fights.
06:42 With others, he wanted to bring his own
06:49 Christian blood to the impetus of 1974 and further reform.
06:55 Jacques Delors did not believe in the so-called great knights.
07:02 He believed in passions, in negotiations every day,
07:07 in social dialogue beyond political opposition.
07:11 And then in 1981,
07:17 that was when his camp won, when there was a strong impetus
07:22 and also a strong economic upheaval,
07:26 when the franc was devalued on two occasions.
07:30 He became the Minister for Economy and Finance and he was holding firm.
07:34 And he launched efficient anti-inflation policies.
07:41 He went along with the major nationalizations,
07:46 with the budgetary rigor.
07:49 And the next year,
07:52 he lost his beloved son, journalist Jean-Paul Delors.
07:57 That was a frightening tragedy,
08:01 but he faced up to it.
08:04 And with his wife,
08:07 he had a proper companion.
08:10 And then he was proud of Martine, his daughter.
08:15 And then Clementine, his granddaughter, was a joy.
08:17 And he found the strength to hold up.
08:21 And the next week, he was back within the Council of Ministers.
08:25 He was devastated, but he was still present, always present.
08:29 Because at the time, those were difficult times for France.
08:34 The War of Two Roses divided the Socialist Party
08:38 and the country hesitated between two journeys.
08:42 After the 30 years of growth,
08:44 skeptics wanted Mitterrand to move away from constraints.
08:48 And people would
08:51 come at night to predict untoward fate to the Republic.
08:56 But he was there again, hand in hand with Pierre Moroy.
08:59 He fought like a lion with others to defend his European vision of economy,
09:04 to prove doomsayers wrong and to keep France within the Common Project.
09:11 That was one of his major works of reconciliation, 1983,
09:18 where at that decisive time, he wanted to reconcile government socialism
09:25 with the social market economy, to reconcile France with Europe.
09:31 To make possible the European ideals without yielding anything.
09:40 To keep with realities.
09:44 In 1985, the president of the Economic Commission was vacant.
09:49 There was a vacancy.
09:50 And his candidacy, when he was a mayor of Clichy
09:55 and he was building on the strength of European MP,
09:59 he ran for the presidency.
10:03 So many decades after the Great War,
10:07 he was the first World War
10:10 and he was the son of a foot soldier.
10:14 And he had the possibility to control the fate of Europe.
10:19 And he wanted
10:23 the past to be recognized and he wanted the future to be
10:28 a potential promise to a reconciliation of people
10:32 so that no life be
10:36 done away by the blindness of people.
10:43 He wanted Europe to reconcile with its future.
10:47 The current face of Europe was contributed to by Jacques Delors,
10:53 feature per feature, with the constant support of Mitterrand
10:57 and his coal for several decades.
11:02 In this Europe, he said, this Europe belongs to us
11:06 as much as we belong to her and we have to keep the fight.
11:12 This is a legacy where for the last 30 years,
11:18 the three, his three institutes watched
11:22 the freeing of people and goods,
11:28 the single market with all the players of civil society,
11:33 the Europe of social dialogue,
11:36 reconciliation of unions and employers,
11:41 monetary union, euro, the central European bank,
11:47 the Europe of growth and solidarity that leaves no one behind,
11:52 supporting unprivileged regions
11:56 with subsidies, a Europe which is aware of the need to broaden
12:02 and to deepen and that sees
12:06 the way forward as
12:09 a string of agreements
12:14 that needs to reform in order to be still free in its action.
12:20 A Europe that see
12:25 economic, social and environmental duties as a
12:30 responsibility for sovereignty and also a philosophical
12:38 unity in the Erasmus program, which he made
12:43 so that the youth of Europe could meet each other and understand each other
12:48 and find a way forward.
12:51 A united Europe in diversity,
12:53 really united Europe, doing away with the Iron Curtain,
13:00 welcoming the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Baltic Europe.
13:07 It is not often that our Europe has made so much progress
13:14 and with his teams and his companions, several leaders
13:19 attending today can pay tribute to him.
13:24 And we know also that several European leaders
13:28 were kind enough to come today, and I'd like to thank them for this.
13:31 And with them, he made a lot of progress for our continent.
13:37 During those years, he was all over the place.
13:43 He would find resources to come and see every member state.
13:49 He traveled 180 times a year
13:52 and he would find compromises and necessary agreements.
13:56 He was a leader among leaders, the eighth member of the G7,
14:02 and he was the conscience of those leaders.
14:07 He was always modern in that
14:11 trifecta, competition, solidarity
14:16 and cooperation in order to strengthen Europe,
14:21 a more sovereign, more united and stronger Europe.
14:24 Thanks to him, Europe has an identity.
14:27 Jacques Delors
14:32 never was president of the French Republic.
14:36 On the 11th of December 1994,
14:43 he said no to running for president of France.
14:49 He looked at the Frenchmen in the eyes,
14:54 who were people who were expecting him.
14:57 But in his words, in his silence,
15:00 we knew how he had been wooded
15:04 and how he was always faithful to his ideals.
15:08 And the future of the community was always foremost.
15:15 And once again, his sense of duty
15:18 led him astray from what was expected of him.
15:22 And the sense of doing his duty,
15:25 which can be found in the Ode to Joy,
15:29 the European anthem, this feeling of duty well accomplished.
15:37 That was always in the forefront of his thought and his behavior.
15:42 Several months on, in his office in Brussels,
15:45 those hands that shaped Europe, wrote history,
15:52 signed decisive treaties and brought people together.
15:56 Those hands have closed his files
16:03 and restored order.
16:07 Carefully, as he did everything,
16:09 he brought those familiar things together.
16:13 A few examples, a few copies of L'Equipe's daily reading,
16:22 a lamp, a medal of honor,
16:25 one of the memories of the harshest strikes.
16:31 He participated in the poster of Citizen Kane
16:39 and a photograph of one of his friends.
16:43 All of this, he brought it with himself wherever he went.
16:47 But he left behind something bigger
16:52 that cannot be moved, that is intangible.
16:58 A French imprint and a European imprint.
17:02 The potential for a social democracy of liberation,
17:09 the possibility of a united Europe, Schengen Europe, Erasmus, Maastricht Europe,
17:14 brought together by common values from Compostela to Balkans,
17:18 from all over Europe, and the strength to change hope into history.
17:27 I made a mistake.
17:34 On the 27th of December last year,
17:38 his journey was not brought to an end.
17:42 No, Jacques Delors,
17:45 just give us a relay.
17:49 For many of you have taken up the slack
17:55 and you are fighting at the top of our European institutions,
17:58 at the top of your governments, your states, of your countries.
18:02 This journey, his journey, will go on.
18:08 It is a difficult journey.
18:12 It is a journey on peaks away from the road of facility,
18:17 always in a sense of imbalance.
18:23 And economic strength and social justice are brought together.
18:28 There's a sense of balance between reality and ideals,
18:34 a reconciliation between the two.
18:37 That was the unquiet path of that great Frenchman.
18:42 That's what he followed, that honest European man, Jacques Delors.
18:52 Long live Europe.
18:55 Long live the Republic.
18:57 Long live France.
18:59 French President Emmanuel Macron paying homage to Jacques Delors,
19:10 who passed away in late December at the age of 98.
19:14 He served three times as European Commission president, longer than anyone else.
19:18 Emmanuel Macron said he reconciled Europe with its future.
19:22 And thanks to Jacques Delors, Europe has its identity.
19:27 That the journey Jacques Delors began continues.
19:32 Detachement inter armé.
19:41 Garde à vous.
19:42 (Gunfire)
19:44 (Music)
19:46 (Gunfire)
19:48 (Music)
19:50 Présentez armes.
19:52 (Silence)
19:54 (Silence)
19:56 (Silence)
19:58 (Silence)
20:00 Au mort.
20:02 (Silence)
20:04 (Helicopter)
20:06 (Helicopter)
20:08 (Helicopter)
20:10 (Helicopter)
20:12 (Helicopter)
20:14 (Helicopter)
20:16 (Helicopter)