(Strasbourg) Do not sidestep problems but address them in their complexity, without simplifications, avoiding lies. Using the democratic method – majorities, oppositions – through responsible choices and their consequences. A lesson in politics is the one held at the end of the debate in the European Parliament by the interim deputy president of the EU Commission, Frans Timmermans. The Dutch politician presented to the floor the work programme of the EU Executive for 2017, inevitably focussed on Brexit, migration, economy and employment, EU budget, innovation and investments, security. To the heavy criticisms of the euro-sceptic and anti-EU fringes who sit in Strasbourg’s Parliament, Timmermans responds with “the need to change” to “meet the citizens’ expectations”, but without giving in at all to those who “want to destroy the European Union” as a project of peace, cooperation and development. He defends with all his might president Jean-Claude Juncker, whom political extremists ask to step back: “The difference between Juncker and Farage is there for everyone to see. Politics is made of responsibility, while those who do not accept it run away. They run away from Europe, they run away from problems”. He reviews the after-Brexit period in the United Kingdom: political divisions, an isolated country, a depreciating pound. Lastly: “We know we must change tack, we will commit to this for the future of our citizens”. Three quarters of the floor burst into a long standing ovation.