During a national tribute to Jacques Delors, paid this Friday in the Cour des Invalides in Paris, Emmanuel Macron saluted the memory of a “conciliator” with “visionary intuition”.
France paid tribute on Friday to Jacques Delors and Europe to one of its most eminent representatives.
The former president of the European Commission and short-lived hope of the left in the 1995 French presidential election died on December 27 at the age of 98.
In the Cour des Invalides in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron presided over a solemn ceremony at the end of the morning which ended with theOde to Joy by Ludwig van Beethoven performed by the Republican Guard orchestra.
In his eulogy, Emmanuel Macron notably paid tribute to the father of the euro “with visionary intuition”. The French president also recalled that Jacques Delors was a big sports fan.
While waiting for an identical ceremony in Brussels, scheduled for later in January, many French and foreign political figures had traveled to Paris, including German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, on behalf of the Council of the EU, but also the Presidents of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola and of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde.