By a curious twist of fate, two pieces of history and of Europe pass away on the same day: the French Jacques Delors and the German Wolfgang Schaeuble. Two different political visions – socialist and Catholic Delors, conservative Schaeuble – but united by a common faith inEurope. By another quirk of fate, both were one step away from leading their respective countries but history took another path. In 1995 Delors, former Minister of Economy and Finance and President of the European Commission for a decade, was credited as the most likely successor to Francois Mitterrand to the Presidency of France but he pulled back, perhaps believing more in his ideas than in himself. Schaeuble, architect of German reunification but then austerity hawk of the EU, was considered the dolphin of Helmut Kohl but in 1990 a deranged man shot him at a rally, forcing him into a wheelchair and then, in 1999, he emerged Angela Merkel that the Chancellery stole from him.
Delors and Schaeuble: two giants faced with the mediocrity of the current ruling classes
Compared to the mediocrity of the current national and European ruling class, with the partial exception of the French President Emmanuel Macron, Delors and Schaeuble, each in their own way, were two giants of politics and history and above all Delors' incomparable lesson will remain in everyone's memory for a long time. It is difficult to find such a perfect synthesis between vision of the future and pragmatism: Europe, the euro and reforms were Delors' guiding stars. The contribution he made to the construction of Europe and the birth of the euro was fundamental but, together with the facts, his progressive vision of reality where freedom and social justice were an indissoluble combination will always remain a point of reference which the left would do well to fish out of its toolbox as soon as possible.
