The former president of France, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing is dead

2020-12-02T23:48:01.173Z

The former French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing is dead, according to what was reported by radio Europe 1. Giscard, was 94 years old and drove the Elysée from 1974 to 1981; he had recently been hospitalized in Tours, western France. He had previously been admitted to the Georges Pompidou hospital in Paris on 14 September for a mild lung infection. The former president died "surrounded by his family" on his property in Authon in the Loir-et-Cher, his entourage said. The youngest president of the Fifth Republic when he was elected in 1974, Giscard d'Estaing had made one of his last public appearances on September 30, 2019 at the funeral in Paris of another president, Jacques Chirac, who had been its prime minister. He was known for promoting a modernization of society in France during his presidency, including divorce and abortion laws. He was one of the architects of European integration.