Leadership Quote by Jacques Santer

It reads like anti-rhetoric from a man who lived inside the machine of European governance: a politician insisting that the performance is not the point. Jacques Santer, a Luxembourg statesman who rose to President of the European Commission in the mid-1990s, is speaking from a culture where legitimacy is built less on soaring oratory than on negotiated outcomes, procedural credibility, and the slow grind of consensus. In that setting, “great speeches” can sound like theater, and “philosophy” like a luxury good - satisfying, even admirable, but rarely what gets directives drafted, budgets passed, or member states aligned.

The intent is pragmatic branding. Santer positions himself against the charismatic-politician archetype, implicitly rejecting the idea that Europe needs messianic rhetoric. The subtext flatters a certain technocratic ethic: seriousness equals modesty; competence equals understatement. It’s also a defensive posture. When institutions face public suspicion - and the EU often does - disavowing grand speech-making can be a way to claim authenticity: I’m not selling you a narrative; I’m doing the work.

But the line carries a quiet irony. Politics can’t escape philosophy; it just smuggles it in under the banner of “common sense.” Choosing not to “attach importance” to ideas is itself an idea about power: that governing is management, not moral argument. In the EU context, that stance has consequences. It soothes coalition partners and calms markets, but it can also widen the emotional gap between institutions and citizens, leaving the story of Europe to be written by louder voices.