Dear friends,
In this difficult period of illness and confinement our thoughts are with you. We hope that you are all doing as well as possible, and that the coronavirus has not affected you, your families, your friends, too severely. Some of you live in areas where the situation is dramatic, and our thoughts go to them, to our most fragile friends, but also to our young friends for whom this period is a real challenge, with a future rather dark on all sides.
It is definitely a world that is closing up, dramatically, and it will be up to us to rebuild it together. When facing the disease Franck Biancheri has never surrendered. At the beginning of his life as a young adult, he vanquished it and came out with a formidable acuity and hindsight in the analysis of the future and the ruptures in our societies, just as those of life. The end of his life was a long struggle in which he continued to fight with all his energy, accompanying us with his anticipations in the long hard work of the GEAB and leading exciting debates and discussions. Up to his death.
We, the Friends of Franck Biancheri, can only follow his example and support the initiatives that are emerging to build together this post-Covid-19 Europe. We owe this to him. It is up to us to pass on our experiences, to contribute to the debate by daring to affirm our convictions for this European community for which we have fought alongside him at one time or another in our lives. This disease must bring us together in solidarity but also in our reflections on future prospects. We can do this by contributing each at our own level, or by coming together, online, as we know so well how to do. You will soon receive an invitation to a first debate. « Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will » more than ever his epitaph resonates with everyone.
We wish you to go through this dark period with courage, strength and optimism! Please be assured of all our sympathy in these difficult times,
Marianne Ranke-Cormier, vice-president
To put you in a good mood, let’s come back to a very moving confinement, that of Franck Biancheri’s archives in the Fonds of the Fondation Jean Monnet pour l’Europe in Lausanne, transferred just one year ago, in March 2019.