[12] He introduced numerous small social reforms, such as reducing the voting age by three years, allowing divorce by common consent, and legalising abortion. As former president, he was a member of the Constitutional Council. [57] Most of the UDF politicians supported the candidacy of the RPR Prime Minister Édouard Balladur at the 1995 presidential election, but Giscard supported his old rival Jacques Chirac, who won the election. [104] He was also a Knight of Malta. [12] His foreign policy was remembered for his close relationship with West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, and together they persuaded Europe's lesser economic powers to collaborate and form new permanent organisations, especially the European Monetary System and the G-7 system. Giscard went from seminar to seminar and, as chair of one of them, I had to explain the purpose of the clock in front of each speaker which showed how much time each platform participant had left. Sean Walsh [119] He was also granted a coat of arms by King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden, for his induction as a Knight of the Seraphim. [12], In 2003, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was admitted to the Académie française. Son employé, qui était dans la pièce avec nous, a pris la photo, et Valéry Giscard d’Estaing a mis sa main sur ma taille, puis il l’a glissé sur ma fesse gauche", raconte Ann-Kathrin Stracke. He is the elder son of Jean Edmond Lucien Giscard d'Estaing (29 March 1894 – 3 August 1982), a high-ranking civil servant, and his wife, Marthe Clémence Jacqueline Marie (May) Bardoux (6 May 1901 – 13 March 2003). Tim King writes POLITICO ‘s Brussels Sketch.. [42], In 1975 Giscard pressured the future King of Spain Juan Carlos I to leave Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet out of his coronation by stating that if Pinochet attended he would not. [78] On 27 November 2009, Giscard publicly launched the Permanent Platform of Atomium Culture during its first conference, held at the European Parliament,[79] declaring: "European intelligence could be at the very root of the identity of the European people. “It’s a clock, Monsieur le Président, and it tells you time’s up.”  He snorted in a very Giscard way and finished his point. C’est « entouré de sa famille » que s’est éteint dans la soirée du mercredi 2 décembre dans la propriété familiale d’Authon (Loir-et-Cher), l’ancien président de la République, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. [98] Former presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande,[99] 2017 presidential candidate Marine Le Pen,[99] German Chancellor Angela Merkel,[100] and European Union leaders Charles Michel, David Sassoli, and Ursula von der Leyen all issued statements praising Giscard's efforts in modernising France and strengthening relations with the European Union. Focus on China [12], Giscard's private life was the source of many rumours at both national and international level. The package was not very popular, but was pursued with vigor. DOSSIER - Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, qui présida la France le temps d'un seul mandat, de 1974 à 1981, est décédé le 2 décembre 2020 des suites du Covid-19. “Your friend, Tony Blair, who does he think he is? Il avait été président de la République entre 1974 et 1981. He promoted liberalisation of trade. ", Criddle, B. J. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. But it was his intimate partnership with Helmut Schmidt, Chancellor of West Germany and a man of the same generation, that laid the foundation of the modern European Union. At the time, 1981, he swept away criticism of letting Greece enter Europe with the line “What is Europe without Plato?”. His tenure was marked by a more liberal attitude on social issues—such as divorce, contraception, and abortion—and attempts to modernise the country and the office of the presidency, notably launching such far-reaching infrastructure projects as the TGV and the turn towards reliance on nuclear power as France's main energy source. Valéry Marie René Georges Giscard d'Estaing (UK: /ˌʒiːskɑːr dɛˈstæ̃/,[2] US: /ʒɪˌskɑːr -/,[3][4] French: [valeʁi maʁi ʁəne ʒɔʁʒ ʒiskaʁ dɛstɛ̃] (listen); 2 February 1926 – 2 December 2020), also known as Giscard or VGE, was a French politician who served as President of France from 1974 to 1981.[5]. [91] He was later diagnosed with a lung infection. [20] As chairman of the National Assembly Committee on Finances, he criticised his successor in the cabinet. So please, make a donation. Pas mal. [89] It tells the story of a French head of state having a romantic liaison with a character called Patricia, Princess of Cardiff. [25], In 1974, Giscard was elected President of France, defeating Socialist candidate François Mitterrand by 425,000 votes. Giscard believed there was a secret pact between Mitterrand and Chirac, two deeply cynical men, to bury their ideological differences in order to defeat him at the 1981 election. Sign in here. [53] In 1984, he was re-elected to his seat in the National Assembly[53] and won the presidency of the regional council of Auvergne. [32], The great crisis that overwhelmed his term was a worldwide economic crisis based on rapidly rising oil prices. [97], President Emmanuel Macron released a statement describing Giscard d'Estaing as a "servant of the state, a politician of progress and freedom";[11] the president declared a national day of mourning for Giscard d'Estaing on 9 December. [105], Giscard d'Estaing was granted a coat of arms by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark upon his appointment to the Order of the Elephant. Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, ancien président de la république (1974-1981), est décédé des suites du Covid à l’âge de 94 ans. [12][22], Despite his ambitions, he was unable to resolve the great economic crisis of his term, a worldwide economic recession caused primarily by a very rapid increase in oil prices. TGV railways connected the regions of France — some feat, as the country is twice the size of Britain. He’s now calling for Albania to be let into Europe?”. [58] That same year Giscard suffered a setback when he lost a close election for the mayoralty of Clermont-Ferrand. There was special aid to exports, and an action fund was set up to aid industries. The former French president has died at just the moment when the members of the European Council — a body that he could justly claim to have invented in 1974 — are about to set in motion a Conference on the Future of Europe. Ce mercredi 2 décembre, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing est décédé des suites du Covid-19 à l'âge de 94 ans. [12][11] In this, he criticised the "solitary practice of the power" and summarised his position towards De Gaulle's policy by a "yes, but ...". Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, né le 2 février 1926 à Coblence, est mort mercredi 2 décembre à l’âge de 94 ans. [41], He promoted creation of the European Council at the Paris Summit in December 1974. [11] He was fluent in German. [90], On 14 September 2020, Giscard d'Estaing was hospitalised for care for breathing complications at the Hôpital Européen Georges-Pompidou in Paris. [84], In May 2020, Giscard was accused of groping a German journalist's buttocks during an interview in 2018. He worked with the stellar British diplomatist, John Kerr, who drafted the treaty, including inserting the famous Article 50 that later allowed the UK to withdraw. In 1981, despite a high approval rating, he was defeated in a runoff against Mitterrand, with 48.2% of the vote. Valéry Giscard d’Estaing stretched out his long legs in the French Embassy in Brussels as he gave me his little lecture on the errors of the former British Prime Minister. [82], On 17 December 1952, Giscard married Anne-Aymone Sauvage de Brantes. [70] On 29 October 2004, the European heads of state, gathered in Rome, approved and signed the European Constitution based on a draft strongly influenced by Giscard's work at the convention. [36] Although he said he had "deep aversion against capital punishment", Giscard claimed in his 1974 campaign that he would apply the death penalty to people committing the most heinous crimes. [35][page needed], In domestic policy, the president's reforms worried the conservative electorate and the Gaullist party, especially the law by Simone Veil legalising abortion. L'ancien chef d’État avait été fréquentes hospitalisés à plusieurs reprises ces derniers mois Giscard’s defeat by Mitterrand, who was ten years older, left him in a void and at just 55 years old he wandered around France, Europe and the world dispensing advice but without anything serious to do. In truth, most of his provisions were incorporated in the 2008 Lisbon Treaty. Valéry Marie René Giscard d'Estaing was born on 2 February 1926 in Koblenz, Germany, during the French occupation of the Rhineland. Giscard had an older sister, Sylvie and younger siblings Olivier, Isabelle, and Marie-Laure. [9] Despite the addition of "d'Estaing" to the family name by his grandfather, Giscard was not male line descendant from the extinct aristocratic family of Vice-Admiral d'Estaing. Valéry Giscard d’Estaing stretched out his long legs in the French Embassy in Brussels as he gave me his little lecture on the errors of the former British Prime Minister. After serving as Minister of Finance under prime ministers Jacques Chaban-Delmas and Pierre Messmer, he won the presidential election of 1974 with 50.8% of the vote against François Mitterrand of the Socialist Party. 19 JAN 2021, © 2021 TheArticle. [64], On 19 April 2007, he endorsed Nicolas Sarkozy for the presidential election. [10][12] He was President of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions from 1997 to 2004. The affair was unveiled by the satirical newspaper Le Canard Enchaîné on 10 October 1979, towards the end of Giscard's presidency. ", Michel, Franck. [45] In 1977, in the Opération Lamantin, he ordered fighter jets to deploy in Mauritania and suppress the Polisario guerrillas fighting against Mauritania. In 1975 he invited the heads of government from West Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States to a summit in Rambouillet, to form the Group of Six major economic powers (now the G7, including Canada). [40] They induced the Soviet Union to establish a degree of liberalisation through the Helsinki Accords. It included a 3-month price freeze; a reduction in the value added tax; wage controls; salary controls; a reduction of the growth in the money supply; and increases in the income tax, automobile taxes, luxury taxes and bank rates. Le président s'est éteint. On 25 September 1974, Giscard summed up his goals: To reform the judicial system, modernize social institutions, reduce excessive inequalities of income, develop education, liberalize repressive legislation, develop culture. All rights reserved, Latest on Brexit [11] His funeral and burial was held on 5 December in Authon with forty people attending the event. Under him France strongly supported the Polish trade union movement, Solidarity in 1980, which announced the end of Soviet communism. [86] However, a number of major newspapers in several countries questioned their motives and some hinted at self-appointed nobility and a usurped historical identity. Chirac got his revenge by running against Giscard in 1981, to split the centre-right vote, and thus let in the socialist François Mitterrand. [11], Unexpectedly, the right-wing coalition won the 1978 legislative election. He gave major cabinet positions to Simone Veil as Minister of Health and Françoise Giroud as secretary for women's affairs. In that role, he lectured French citizens by holding up charts in TV broadcasts to explain the economic changes the country needed. Then in 2005, his long-standing rival, Chirac, got his final revenge on Giscard by holding a referendum which defeated the constitutional Treaty. His ancestress was Lucie Madeleine d'Estaing, Dame de Réquistat (1769–1844), who in turn was descendant of Joachim I d'Estaing, sieur de Réquistat (1610–1685), illegitimate son of Charles d'Estaing (1585–1661), sieur de Cheylade, Knight of Saint John of Jerusalem, son of Jean III d'Estaing, seigneur de Val (1540–1621) and his wife, Gilberte de La Rochefoucauld (1560–1623). The Airbus took off. Photograph: AFP. Valéry Giscard d'Estaing s’est éteint le mercredi 2 décembre à l’âge de 94 ans. Unlike Labour Britain in the 1970s, when an out-of-touch 1945 generation Labour government could not read or harness the new energies of the 1968 generation, Giscard opened up France. [17] After the proclamation of the Fifth Republic, the CNIP leader Antoine Pinay became Minister of Economy and Finance and chose him as Secretary of State for Finances from 1959 to 1962. ", Nester, William R. "President Giscard d'Estaing", in, Shenton, Gordon. [22] He took a ride on the Métro, ate monthly dinners with ordinary Frenchmen, and even invited garbage men from Paris to have breakfast with him in the Élysée Palace. Acting heads of state are denoted by an asterisk. Giscard, to put it politely, enjoyed the company of women and promoted several to be ministers. "Valéry Giscard d'Estaing: the limits of liberalism", in, This page was last edited on 15 January 2021, at 23:42. As of 2010, he is a member of the Constitutional Council of France. [56], He hoped to become prime minister during the first "cohabitation" (1986–88) or after the re-election of Mitterrand with the theme of "France united", but he was not chosen for this position. [11] In the run-off on 20 May, however, Giscard narrowly defeated Mitterrand, receiving 50.7% of the vote. [60] Following his retirement from the National Assembly his son Louis Giscard d'Estaing was elected in his former constituency. [15], In 1956, he was elected to the National Assembly as a deputy for the Puy-de-Dôme département, in the domain of his maternal family. [67], On 21 January 2017, with a lifespan of 33,226 days, he surpassed Émile Loubet (1838–1929) in terms of longevity, and became the oldest former president in French history. He wins the 1974 presidential elections by beating his opponent Francois Mitterand becoming the youngest French head of state since 1848. He was the longest-lived French president in history (94 years and 304 days). Giscard d'Estaing in the centre faced political opposition from both sides of the spectrum: from the newly unified left under François Mitterrand and a rising Jacques Chirac, who resurrected Gaullism on a right-wing opposition line. [23] Jacques Chirac and other Gaullist personalities published the Call of the 43 [fr] where they explained that Giscard was the best candidate to prevent the election of Mitterrand. [72], Giscard d'Estaing attracted international attention at the time of the June 2008 Irish vote on the Lisbon Treaty. Valéry Giscard d’Estaing est décédé ce mercredi 2 décembre 2020, à l’âge de 94 ans. [11] He was representative of a new generation of politicians emerging from the senior civil service, seen as "technocrats". Even in death, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing can still exert influence over the European Union. [87][86] It was put up for sale in 2008 for €3 million[86] and is now the property of the Valéry Giscard d'Estaing Foundation. [12][11] He was committed to supporting innovative technology, and focused on creating the TGV high-speed rail network, promoting nuclear power, and developing the telephone system. Giscard had in fact been De Gaulle’s finance minister, a 1960s. Valéry Giscard d’Estaing était un homme qui travaillait dans l’intérêt des Françaises et des Français et se considérait volontiers comme quelqu’un proche du peuple. It contributed to Giscard losing his 1981 reelection bid. Valéry Giscard d'Estaing est mort le 2 décembre dernier des suites de la Covid-19 à l'âge de 94 ans. As Minister of Health she carried out other pro-women reforms. [11] In 2016, he supported former Prime minister François Fillon in The Republicans presidential primaries. [68], From 1989 to 1993, Giscard served as a member of the European Parliament. Valéry Marie René Giscard d'Estaing was born on 2 February 1926 in Koblenz, Germany, during the French occupation of the Rhineland. He joined the French Resistance and participated in the Liberation of Paris; during the liberation he was tasked with protecting Alexandre Parodi. French centre-right politician who was President of the French Republic from 1974 until 1981. [16] He joined the National Centre of Independents and Peasants (CNIP), a conservative grouping. ", Shields, James. [88], Giscard wrote his second romantic novel, published on 1 October 2009 in France, entitled The Princess and the President. [12] In 1978, he was for this reason the obvious target of Jacques Chirac's Call of Cochin, denouncing the "party of the foreigners". [43], Giscard continued de Gaulle's African policy and he supported delivering oil supplies to and from Africa. ", "Fromer President Gerald R. Ford stands with Vice President Dick Cheney", "Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and Edouard Balladur, Jacques Chirac's best enemies", "L'UMP tente un nouvel assaut en Auvergne", "France's New Five-Year Presidential Term", "Giscard: France's rejection of the Constitution was a 'mistake, La Chiraquie veut protéger son chef quand il quittera l'Elysée, "Valéry Giscard d'Estaing soutient François Fillon", "Le "parti de l'étranger" et "le bruit et l'odeur", les précédents dérapages de Jacques Chirac", "Lisbon Treaty made to avoid referendum, says Giscard", "Yes to simplified treaty, No to a mutilated text", "Roche regrets 'distortion' of Giscard quote on Lisbon", "Lisbon No campaign was 'dishonest' in misusing his quote, says Giscard", "Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Honorary President of Atomium-EISMD", "The Honorary President of Atomium Culture Valéry Giscard d'Estaing speaks at the public launch and first conference, Atomium Culture", "Atomium Culture: Bienenstock der Intelligenz – Atomium Culture – Wissen", "Highlights of the Public Launch and First Conference of Atomium-EISMD", "Valéry Giscard d'Estaing : un roman et des souvenirs", "French get peek at all the presidents' women", "Hemeroteca La Vanguardia, November 30th 1974 (Spanish)", "Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Ex-French President, Accused of Groping Journalist", "Giscard d'Estaing a victim of chateau slump", "France's former president Giscard d'Estaing, 94, hospitalised", "El expresidente francés Giscard d'Estaing, de 94 años, hospitalizado por una infección pulmonar", "Former French President Giscard d'Estaing hospitalized", "L'ancien président Valéry Giscard d'Estaing est sorti de l'hôpital", L'ancien président Valéry Giscard d'Estaing est mort, VALÉRY GISCARD D'ESTAING EST MORT À L'ÂGE DE 94 ANS, "French ex-president Giscard laid to rest in low-key ceremony", "Macron declares national day of mourning for Giscard d'Estaing on December 9", "French ex-President Valery Giscard d'Estaing dies of Covid", "Merkel Mourns Loss Of 'Great European' Giscard D'Estaing", "Giscard d'Estaing: a tribute from Sassoli, Michel and Von der Leyen. A ses côtés, sa femme Anne-Aymone d'Estaing, 87 ans n'a jamais vacillé. [94], He died from complications attributed to COVID-19 on 2 December 2020[10] at the age of 94. [11][86] The castle was not used as a residence but it had symbolic value and explained that the purchase, supported by the local municipality, was an act of patronage. However, his popularity suffered from the economic downturn that followed the 1973 energy crisis, marking the end of the "Trente Glorieuses" (thirty glorious years of prosperity after 1945). He handed over this arduous task to Simone Veil, who had survived Auschwitz and still bore the Nazi tattoo on her arm. [66], A 2014 poll suggested that 64% of the French thought he had been a good president. [83] In 1974, Le Monde reported that he used to leave a sealed letter stating his whereabouts in case of emergency. [54], In 1982, along with his friend Gerald Ford, he co-founded the annual AEI World Forum. He faced venomous and cynical opposition from his rival Jacques Chirac, who shamelessly pandered to the anti-European passions of the French Right as well as the Communist Left. [21][11], During the 1969 presidential campaign he supported the winning candidate Georges Pompidou, after which he returned to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Giscard entered and left office a young man, but his seven years as President saw more reforms in France and one of the fastest modernisations of the nation in history, as well as laying the foundations of today’s European Union. In 1973, while Minister of Finance, Giscard d'Estaing was given a number of diamonds by Bokassa. Giscard d’Estaing turned the country into a modern, exciting, dynamic, youthful nation which re-entered history. There was increased financial aid to farmers, who were suffering from a drought, and for social security. [102], In 2003 he received the Charlemagne Award of the German city of Aachen. Millerand held the presidency in an acting capacity before being fully elected. [47] In 1979's Operation Caban, French troops helped drive Bokassa out of power and restore former president David Dacko to power. Most referendums in EU member states this century with the word Europe on the ballot paper, were lost – a point David Cameron might have noted if he had ever taken the slightest interest in European politics before calling his Brexit plebiscite. [22], Throughout his political career, Giscard was a proponent of a greater European Union. [55] He has also served on the Trilateral Commission after being president, writing papers with Henry Kissinger. [69], From 2001 to 2004 he served as President of the Convention on the Future of Europe. [44] Senegal, Ivory Coast, Gabon, and Cameroon were the largest and most reliable African allies, and received most of the investments. That treaty brought back old Treaty language, including the reference to “an ever-closer union of the peoples of Europe”, which as Europe Minister, I had excised from the final text of the constitution. [95][96][38] His family said that his funeral would be held in "strict intimacy". I replied politely. Giscard was born in the same year as the Queen: 1926. French version of Rishi Sunak. He visited Mitterrand on his deathbed in 1995 to ask him to confirm his suspicion, but Mitterrand, as ever, remained elegantly ambiguous and refused to satisfy his predecessor’s curiosity. [10], Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was a close friend of West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and together they persuaded Europe's lesser powers to hold regular summit meetings, and set up the European Monetary System. [13], He studied at Lycée Blaise-Pascal in Clermont-Ferrand, École Gerson and Lycées Janson-de-Sailly and Louis-le-Grand in Paris. [63] Indeed, the question of the membership of former presidents in the council was raised at this point, with some suggesting that it should be replaced by a life membership in the Senate. [39] Giscard reacted by founding a centre-right confederation, the Union for French Democracy (UDF). He was in the Resistance as a teenager in the war, and joined the Free French army that helped to liberate France and entered Germany. As president, Giscard d'Estaing promoted cooperation among the European nations, especially in tandem with West Germany. The last death sentence, bearing Giscard's signature, was executed in September 1977, the last ratified by the Court of Cassation in March 1981, but rescinded by presidential pardon after Giscard's defeat in the presidential election in May. La famille de Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, décédé ce mercredi 2 décembre des suites de la Covid-19 à l'âge de 94 ans, a été touchée par deux décès prématurés dans les années 2010. [61], Following his narrow defeat in the regional elections of March 2004, marked by the victory of the left wing in 21 of 22 regions, he decided to leave partisan politics and to take his seat on the Constitutional Council as a former president of the Republic. More precisely, Valery Giscaird D'Estaing was Secretary of State and Minister of Finance (1959-1966) and Minister of Economy during the presidency of Georges Pompidou (1969-1974). [34] However, when he learned that most Frenchmen were somewhat cool to this display of informality, Giscard became so aloof and distant that his opponents frequently attacked him as being too far removed from ordinary citizens. [11], In his appointments he was innovative regarding women. [29], He pushed for the development of the TGV high speed train network and the Minitel telephone upgrade, a precursor of the Internet. [11] Nevertheless, relations with Chirac, who had founded the Rally for the Republic (RPR), became more tense. The point about Giscard d’Estaing was that he loved a good argument. [37] He did not commute three of the death sentences that he had to decide upon during his presidency. Sophie has 9 jobs listed on their profile. France under his administration was thus the last country in the European Community and, had the United States not reinstated it, the last in the Western world to apply the death penalty. [22] Although France received many Chilean political refugees, Giscard d'Estaing's government secretly collaborated with Pinochet's and Videla's juntas as shown by journalist Marie-Monique Robin. [67] He was considered to be an honest and competent politician, but also a distant man. [10][12] His two main challengers were François Mitterrand for the left and Jacques Chaban-Delmas, a former Gaullist Prime Minister. [14] He graduated from the École polytechnique and the École nationale d'administration (1949–1951) and chose to enter the prestigious Inspection des finances. Veil confronted the abortion issue.[27][28]. [85], In 2005 he and his brother bought the castle of Estaing, formerly a possession of the above-mentioned Admiral d'Estaing who was beheaded in 1794. BIOGRAPHY Son of Edmond Giscard d'Estaing and Marthe Bardoux, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was born 2 February 1926 in Koblenz, Germany. His seven-year-long presidency of France from 1974, when he was elected aged 48, to 1981, when the socialist François Mitterrand took over, oversaw the transformation of this deeply traditionalist, conservative and then still Catholic country. Member of the Gaullist majority: 1962–1974, Emmanuel Mourlon-Druol, "Filling the EEC leadership vacuum? [11], He served as President of the UDF from 1988 to 1996, but he was faced with the rise of a new generation of politicians called the rénovateurs ("renovationmen"). [12] He transformed the RI into a political party, the National Federation of the Independent Republicans (FNRI), and founded the Perspectives and Realities Clubs. Miriam Gonzalez Durantez [69] From 1989 to 1991, he was also chairman of the Liberal and Democratic Reformist Group. The first President of the Fifth Republic, Charles de Gaulle, dictated each day what the news headlines of French television should be. I replied politely. [6] He was the elder son of Jean Edmond Lucien Giscard d'Estaing, a high-ranking civil servant, and his wife, Marthe Clémence Jacqueline Marie (May) Bardoux. He extended the right to political asylum, expanded health insurance to cover all Frenchmen, lowered the voting age to 18, and modernised the divorce law. He was forced to impose austerity budgets and allow unemployment to rise in order to avoid deficits. In 2003, he was elected to the Académie Française, taking the seat that his friend and former president of Senegal Léopold Sédar Senghor had held. [21] The Gaullists accused him of being largely responsible for De Gaulle's departure. The first Barre plan emerged on 22 September 1976, with a priority to stop inflation. [12][14] He acceded to the Tax and Revenue Service, then joined the staff of Prime Minister Edgar Faure (1955–1956). He also served as President of the Regional Council of Auvergne from 1986 to 2004.