10 Elections. A history of the European Parliament at the ballot box (1979-2024) June 2024 | Page 52

red how we would manage with the Germans … I thought that if we couldn ’ t find a way to reconcile , our children would also become caught up in this hatred .’ 7
Later , when her husband Antoine Veil was appointed to a post in Germany in the early 1950s , she did not hesitate to follow him , to the utter amazement of many of her relatives . Simone Veil often expressed her lack of a desire for revenge . She never let emotions cloud her view that the reconciliation between France and Germany was crucial . It was based on a rational vision : to preserve peace in Europe for future generations .
The Europe she was promoting was above all geopolitical and cultural in nature . It was the Europe of peace after centuries of fratricidal conflicts , of democratic freedoms in the face of totalitarianism . It was also the Europe of solidarity .
For Simone Veil , justice was important . She had a social conscience , which sometimes made it difficult to position her on the political spectrum , and which often aroused the sympathy of voters and figures with socialist tendencies . This can be seen , for example , in the warm tribute paid to her following her death by former President of the European Commission and left-wing French political figure Jacques Delors , who also passed away recently . ‘ Simone Veil and I were elected together in 1979 . We were not elected on the same lists , but we shared a lot of beliefs about Europe . In her inaugural speech , she also talked about a Europe of solidarity , a Europe of independence and a Europe of cooperation .’ 8
At the beginning of her term of office , back when the European Parliament ’ s powers were still limited to approving the Community
7 . M . Szafran , Simone Veil : Destin , Flammarion , 1994 . 8 . Le Monde , 30 June 2017 .
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