Christine Lagarde Instagram – When I think of the late Wolfgang Schäuble, the first image I see is him sitting across from me at the table of the French cabinet in the Elysée Palace, the first German finance minister to participate in such a meeting. I see him sitting at the negotiating table in Brussels, at one of our many meetings that ran long into the night. I hear the straight talker who never shied away from difficult decisions. I remember the dedicated public servant, a master of diplomacy with the intellectual ability to understand opposing viewpoints. I see a natural statesman with the courage to stand by his convictions as well as the pragmatism to recognise the world as it is. And I see a man of loyalty and kindness. His success did not come through a forceful personality, but from understanding how to find common ground with others. In today’s challenging environment of extreme views, his statesmanship and his philosophy of staying true to yourself and to your democratic institutions would have been welcomed. I will miss you, my dear friend.