Former French president Valery Giscard d’Estaing, a leading advocate of European integration who led his nation into a new modern era, has died of COVID-19, his family said. He was 94.
Giscard, who had been in hospital several times for heart problems, died late on Wednesday “surrounded by his family” at the family home in the Loire region.
“His state of health had worsened and he died as a consequence of COVID-19,” the family said in a statement, adding that his funeral would be strictly private, according to his wishes.
Photo: Reuters
French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to his predecessor, saying Giscard’s seven-year term had “transformed France.”
“His death has plunged the French nation into mourning,” Macron said, describing Giscard as “a servant of the state, a politician of progress and freedom.”
Giscard made one of his last public appearances on Sept. 30 last year at the funeral of former French president Jacques Chirac, who had been his prime minister.
He became the 20th century’s youngest president at 48 when in 1974 and he is remembered for his radical reform drive, which included the legalization of abortion, the liberalization of divorce and the lowering of the voting age to 18.
In Europe, he helped drive moves toward monetary union, in close cooperation with then-German chancellor Helmut Schmidt, with whom he became friends and whose leadership years almost overlapped with his own.
Together they launched the European Monetary System, a precursor of the euro.
“For Valery Giscard d’Estaing, Europe was to be a French ambition and France a modern nation. Respect,” EU Head of the Task Force for Relations with the UK Michel Barnier said.
He “succeeded in modernizing political life in France,” said former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, praising the “great intelligence” he used to master “even the most complex international problems.”
Like Schmidt, Giscard was also a firm believer in strong ties with the US.
With his death, France “has lost a statesman who chose to open up to the world”, former French president Francois Hollande said.
He hailed a man who was “resolutely European,” and who helped strengthen Franco-German unity.
It was at Giscard’s initiative that leaders of the world’s richest nations first met in 1975, an event that evolved into the annual G7 summit.
With a more relaxed presidential style than his predecessors, “VGE” was sometimes seen in public playing soccer or the accordion.
He also hosted garbage collectors for breakfast and invited himself to dinner at the homes of ordinary citizens.
Giscard involved his family in his political appearances, had the blue and red of France’s tricolore flag toned down and the Marseillaise national anthem slowed.
Giscard was firmly part of the elite.
Tall and slender, and with an elegant, aristocratic manner, he studied at France’s exclusive Ecole Polytechnique and the National Administration School.
Aged just 18, he joined the French resistance in World War II and took part in the liberation of Paris from its Nazi occupiers in 1944.
He then served for eight months in Germany and Austria.
He launched his political career in 1959, becoming French minister of the economy and finance in 1969.
After his defeat in the 1981 presidential election — which he said left him with “frustration at a job unfinished” — he remained active in politics, first regaining a seat in the French National Assembly and then serving in the European Parliament.
In 2001, he was selected by European leaders to lead work on the EU’s constitutional treaty — which French voters then rejected.
After losing his legislative seat, he ended his political career in 2004.
French prosecutors in May opened an investigation after claims by a German reporter that Giscard had repeatedly inappropriately touched her at his Paris office after an interview in 2018.
Giscard strongly denied the allegations, describing them as “grotesque.”
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