Ieke,
She was a colleague, she was a comrade, she was a friend.
She was a ‘grande dame’, a committed socialist.
Speaking about Ieke, is also a story of a woman in trade union, in politic, about engagement of women to make it better, about a network. Allow me to mention a few of them that did count, MEP or political advisors, first her friend Elisa Ferreira on behave of whom I also speak today. In her word it would sound: ‘Ieke was a fantastic friend’. Around the Charter of fundamental rights, I should mention Anne van Lancker, Elena Paciotti, Anna Colombo and Odilia Henriques, in ECON, Annabel Garnier and Ute Muller or from other political groups Piia Noora Kauppi and Margarita Starkevicuite. Their where also men, but one quit special, the president of the PES at that time, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, with him she worked on the very item of hedge funds and private equity, looking at the social impact of leverage buy out (LBO). This was not a hazard when you now how much this bridge between social issues and financial markets was the matrix factor of her language, of her thought.
We worked together closely on a nearly daily bases during the 10 years she has been a member of the European Parliament. When she was coordinator for the socialists in the ECON committee I was the chair of, in our complicity, I believe I was the bad girl when she was the good one, and indeed she was one.
(Lire +)