UN General Assembly
1990

Think of the dramatic changes that occurred in Europe and throughout the world in 1989, of the deep popular movements which, like the French Revolution 200 years ago, overcame everything: structures, systems, ways of thinking and , powers and fears '97 and all for the sole, compelling need to live differently, in keeping with the requirements of the spirit. When the walls that separated peoples came tumbling down '97 walls built in the mistaken belief that the order they were protecting would forever escape the great winds of space of dreams and of ideas '97 I remember saying to my compatriots in France that, in these happy hours of which there are so few in history, the end of an order did not necessarily mean that another order would immediately be born, and that it would be very difficult. I ask the Assembly: What are we to make of this new era which is at once so promising and so perilous? Yes, what shall we make of it?