Jacques Delors, the refusal of the politics of illusions | EUROtoday

HASn the morning of Sunday, May 10, 1981, I had espresso with Jacques Delors, a member of the crew of the socialist presidential candidate. I discover him feverish as if he have been affected by a robust flu. Worried, though – or as a result of? – the victory of François Mitterrand now appears potential.

He fears the worst from the “little geniuses of the PS”: how can we make them perceive that the franc is threatened and that the slightest lurch would “throw the France car into the ditch”? This is why he needed, somewhat than the celebrated Ministry of the Economy and Finance – then positioned on rue de Rivoli – the extra modest place of secretary basic of the Élysée. It is from there, he explains to me, “that we can best tighten the bolts”.