In certain situations the compiler requires a class type:

• As the ancestor of a class type
• In the on-clause of a try-except statement
• As the first argument of a raise statement
• As the final type of a forward declared class type

program Produce;
begin
raise 'This would work in C++, but does not in Delphi';
end.
  program Solve;
uses SysUtils;
begin
raise Exception.Create('There is a simple workaround, however');
end.