 Goed afternoon, everyone. All of you here in this beautiful concert hall over where you are in the world watching this live stream. I'm Rob Riemen. I'm the founder and president of the Nexus Institute. And it's a great privilege to welcome all of you on behalf of the Nexus Institute to the Nexus lecture of president Emmanuel Macron. Allow me to extend a very special welcome to the presidential delegation from Paris. Excellents, desinke membre de la délication présidentielle, c'est un grand honneur de vous accueillez ici à l'Institut Nexus. S'agit que vous êtes bienvenue. Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends. As we are living in a time in which so many important words are misused or have lost their meaning, I would prefer to avoid big words. Yet it would be false modesty not to observe that in all objectivity today all of us are attending a real historical event. Seventy-five years ago in 1948 our continent had become synonymous with two world wars, one hundred million deaths, the poison of nationalism, racism, totalitarianism, Holocaust, Auschwitz. And because of that darkest period in our history in the year of 1948 many political leaders and intellectuals, such as Churchill, Arnauwe, Paul Reno, Raymond Aron, Bertrand Russell, Jean Monnet, came together here in The Hague with their congress of Europe to saw the seeds of what would become our European Union. A united Europe to make sure that what happened in the first half of the 20th century would never happen again. In a sovereign, united and democratic European Union there would be no place anymore for the politics of lies, resentment, hatred, nationalism and extremism. Maar nu, 75 jaar, na dat congress van Europe, onze continent is afhankelijkd door veel crisisen, including a never-expected war. En geefen dit background dat is historisch, dat hier in The Hague, at the Nexus Institute, once again a world thriller, de president de France, Emmanuel Macron, will use this stage to present his vision on the future of Europe. Now before I turn the floor to the president in a minute, let me explain briefly why you can see here on stage, next to the usual flags, also the flag of the Nexus Institute. And it's connection to my invitation to President Macron to deliver an Nexus lecture. In 2006, on Nexus lecturer was Jannos Starger, who was one of the most famous sales place in the world in the 20th century. He was a Hungarian Jew, survivor of the Holocaust, not his two brothers. They were killed by the Nazis. After the war, Jannos went to the US, where he, together with a few friends, founded the School for Classical Music in Bloomington, Indiana. En de idee behind the school is to keep alive an education that Hitler wanted to destroy. An education in Bildung, in a profound knowledge of the arts, an education in the pursuit of truth and beauty. Unfortunately, the school is still there, and it is still one of the best. Now I saw Jannos, for a last time, ten years ago, not long before he died on April 28, 2013. En wanneer was about to leave, he suddenly said to me, Rob, carry the flag. And the flag he was referring to, is the flag of the oldest republic in the history of humankind. The flag Jannos Starger kept in mind is the flag of the Republic of Larris. The Republic of Ideas. The Republic of a cosmopolitan spiritual heritage that offers people the opportunity to cultivate their own soul. Carry the flag. Johan Plak, my old friend with whom I founded the 1991 Journal Access, founded in 1962 a bookshop and a publishing house in which he published the most beautiful editions of the classics and poetry with the same attention as Jannos Starger, to keep a culture, now a book culture alive, that the Nazis wanted to destroy. As without the world of books, people would get lost in their own ignorance. Carry the flag. That's what George Stein, a dear friend of both Johan Plak and the Nexus Institute, did with all his work. Keeping alive the tradition of a Baruchspinoza, the tradition of a European humanism, with its idea that our lives are a quest for meaning. And this liberal education is an education in the only nobility that counts. The nobility of spirit. Carry the flag. Our flag symbolizes the Nexus Institute's intent to be part of that Republic of Ideas, the Republic of European Humanism. And this, for this reason that I have chosen, 30 years ago this quote from Magritte Jusna's beautiful novel Memoir de Adrien, as a motto, I quote, Each man fortunate enough to benefit to some degree from this legacy of culture, seemed to me responsible for protecting it and holding it in trust for the human race. Ladies and gentlemen, on April 24th, it is exactly one year ago that a few thousand supporters of President Macron assembled us, the Champ de Mars, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, nervously waiting for the results of the presidential elections. Evelyn en I were among them. Exactly at 8 p.m., the news we were all hoping for popped up on the big screen. With almost 60% of the votes, Emmanuel Macron had won the elections. And around one-half hour later, it was already getting dark, the president arrived with his wife Brigitte, family and friends. And when they walked to the stage, the music of Beethoven you just heard was played, the cellos introducing the theme of the fourth movement of the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven. And suddenly I understood why all his supporters were given at the entrance of the Champ de Mars, this flag, the flag of Europe. Emmanuel Macron wanted us to know that he would be a president who in his heart is as much a citoyenne de la République Francaise as a citizen of the Republic of Ideas. That he wants to be a political leader who carries the flag, not only of France, but also the flag of the idea of Europe. So join me in a warm welcome to Emmanuel Macron.