Jacques Delors and “the enigma” François Hollande | EUROtoday

“My daughter is the best, we must support her! » At 86 years old, the modest Jacques Delors came out of his reserve to support Martine Aubry. The father had never acted like this. He and his daughter hated that their names were associated, that one gave the impression of using the other or vice versa, but, in this month of August 2011, the situation is unprecedented to say the least: two Delors “babies” face one another within the socialist main. François Hollande, the previous secretary normal of the Witness Clubs, the one who in 1992 actively campaigned for the candidacy of Jacques Delors within the 1995 presidential election, challenges the primary secretary of the PS, Martine Aubry.

At the start, Jacques Delors remained reserved, deep down not sad to see that Delorism had made important progress in socialist minds: the marketing campaign was smart, way more so than that of 1981. François Hollande and Martine Aubry, the 2 favorites, insisted on debt discount, management of public spending, pension reform, decentralization, lifelong coaching. All of them declare to be European in coronary heart and thoughts. Perfect.

“The Socialist Party has made progress”, notes, glad, Jacques Delors. But sooner or later, candidate Hollande overdoes it, he desires to seize the legacy. So Jacques Delors comes out of his reserve and strikes together with his claw. “My daughter has the kindness not to use my name, I would not say the same about other candidates”, he blurted out on the parliamentary channel. Then delivers this unpublished confession: “Her father and mother love her madly, she is free and we respect her choices. »

Family curse

Two years later, in 2013, Jacques Delors spoke of Martine Aubry’s failure with expert detachment, laughingly denying that there was a sort of family curse in the face of the presidential race: “Hollande was more skilled than her in the socialist machine. And then there was the ambiguous attitude of Montebourg and the personal game of Valls. She was alone against this”he coldly dissected, saying to himself “admiring” of the pace with which her daughter had turned the web page, “without anger or criticism”due to “a very balanced life”. We thought we heard him conducting his personal remedy.

François Hollande, for his half, remained an enigma for Jacques Delors, who confided that he had not spoken to him a lot since… 2007. “We argued at the congress of the Party of European Socialists, when he was still first secretary. I found that what he had done was not good for the PS”he blurted out, slyly.

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