The former president of the European Commission, father of the euro and figure of the French left, Jacques Delors, died on Wednesday at the age of 98.
“He died this morning (Wednesday) at his Paris home in his sleep,” declared the socialist mayor of Lille. Favorite in the polls, Jacques Delors dampened the hopes of the left by refusing to run in the 1995 presidential election, a spectacular renunciation on television in front of 13 million viewers.
Born in Paris in 1925 into a modest family, Jacques Delors began his career as a member of the Banque de France in 1950, after studying economics at the Sorbonne, and experience in trade unionism at the CFTC.
In 1979, he was elected MEP at the age of 54. He chaired the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee of the European Assembly until 1981. He was then appointed Minister of the Economy, Finance and Budget in the government of Pierre Mauroy, where he participated in the European integration of French economic policy. Two years later, he was elected Mayor of Clichy.
In 1985, he returned to Brussels, where he became president of the European Commission. He will hold this position for 10 years.
He witnessed the rise of the single market, the launch of the Economic and Monetary Union which led to the euro, the start of European social dialogue, and the Erasmus program.
This Economic and Monetary Union became the central element of the Maastricht Treaty – the new European reform designed by Jacques Delors entered into force on November 1, 1993, two years before the end of his mandate.
Despite his popularity and the encouragement of the Socialist Party, Jacques Delors gave up running for the French presidential election of 1995. Among the reasons given: his age, but also the emerging political career of his daughter Martine Aubry with whom he did not want not interfere. The two nevertheless remain very close.
In 2015, the European Council named him Jacques Delors “honorary citizen of Europe”, a title previously awarded to Jean Monnet and Helmut Kohl.