Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, former President of the Republic, is dead

Former President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, November 23, 2015 in Hamburg, for the funeral of former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt.

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• Former head of state Valéry Giscard d'Estaing has passed away.

• Former Minister of Finance, "VGE" succeeded Georges Pompidou at the Elysee Palace in 1974, before being defeated by the socialist François Mitterrand in 1981.

• A convinced European, a man of ruptures, VGE was also an academician.

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, former President of the Republic, died on December 2, 2020, "surrounded by his family" on his property in Authon in Loir-et-Cher, AFP learned from his entourage.

"VGE" was 94 years old.

Born on February 2, 1926 in Germany, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing enlisted at the age of 18 in the First Army, which participated in the reconquest of French territory (1944-1945), and was awarded the Croix de Guerre.

A brilliant student, he resumed his studies just after the war, studied at the Polytechnic School then at the National School of Administration (ENA) before entering the General Inspectorate of Finance in 1952.

Longevity in government

The senior official began a political career in 1956, the date of his election as deputy for Puy-de-Dôme.

Poulain of Edgar Faure, former President of the Council, he joined the government in 1959. Appointed Secretary of State in charge of Finance then Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs of General de Gaulle (1962-1966), he returned to government with Georges Pompidou, as Minister of the Economy and Finance (1969-1974).

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, then Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, on September 3, 1964 at Orly airport - DALMAS / SIPA

Georges Pompidou deceased, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing launches into the race for the Elysée.

He was elected President of the Republic at 48, becoming the youngest president of the Fifth Republic - a record broken in 2017 by Emmanuel Macron, who entered the Elysee Palace at just 39 years old.

Modernity, youth, liberalism, Europe, VGE wishes to embody the rupture.

It is under his term that the majority is lowered to 18 years, and that the voluntary termination of pregnancy is adopted, a text carried by the Minister of Health Simone Veil.

It was he who decided, in 1977, to transform an old Parisian station into a museum.

The Musée d'Orsay will be inaugurated in 1986.

Man of communication whose model is John Fitzgerald Kennedy, VGE does not hesitate to stage himself and his family at the Elysee Palace.

An image which, however, is embellished.

Mocked for his monarchical incarnation of the presidential function, he is the object of scandals, the most resounding of which remains the diamonds of Bokassa (1979), a gift from the dictator of the Central African Republic where he stayed several times to practice hunting.

His silence will be interpreted as contempt.

Campaigning for his re-election in 1981, VGE was beaten by the socialist François Mitterrand, a candidate he had defeated seven years earlier by throwing him the famous pique: "You do not have a monopoly of the heart".

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Europe pegged to the body

His departure from the Elysee Palace remains another moment on television, where the discomfort reaches new heights.

At the end of a televised address, on May 19, 1981, he says "goodbye" before leaving his chair and disappearing from the screen.

A scene of a few seconds that seems to last forever.

"La Marseillaise" resounds in this immense empty room, in front of a chair.

VGE is 55 years old, but this defeat does not mark the end of his political career.

He wants to return to the top.

He became a member again after a by-election in 1984, and became, with Jacques Chirac, one of the opposition figures.

Founder of the Union for French Democracy in 1978, he chaired the center-right formation between 1988 and 1996.

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, promoter of a constitution for Europe, May 23, 2005 in Clermont-Ferrand - By PAUL GROVER / REX FEATURES

One of its major projects is Europe.

Working for the creation of the Committee for the Monetary Union of Europe (1986) with the former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, VGE was a member of the European Parliament from 1989 to 1993, before being appointed President of the European Convention responsible for 'draw up a Constitution for Europe in 2001. That same year, he received the gold medal from the Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe.

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The pro-European elected still retains national functions, as deputy (1993-2002).

He presided over the Auvergne region for a long time (1986-2004), a land that shelters a foundation dedicated to his seven-year term, but also the Vulcania park, which represents one of his major projects.

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing stops active policy in 2004, then joining the Constitutional Council where he is a member by right.

He supported Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007 and then in 2012, before considering Emmanuel Macron with kindness in 2017.

Almost until the end of his life, the former President of the Republic continued to intervene in the media.

In 2020, on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the appeal of June 18, 1940, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing spoke on RTL about his relations with General de Gaulle, of whom he was minister for seven years, confiding in passing his "esteem ”For Edouard Philippe, Prime Minister then on the departure.

Literary man

Author of 

(1988), he writes in

(2009) that Lady Diana, then wife of Prince Charles of England, would not have been insensitive to his charms. moreover been attributed, including one with an actress after a foggy accident against a milkman's van, in 1974. However, he remained married to Anne-Aymone Sauvage de Brantes, with whom he had several children, including Louis Giscard d'Estaing, regional councilor of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and former deputy.

In 2020, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing is targeted by the complaint of a German journalist for sexual assault.

Ann-Kathrin Stracke, 37, accused the former French head of state of pressing her buttocks insistently during a photoshoot after an interview at the end of 2018.

Man of letters, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was elected to the French Academy on December 11, 2003, in the chair of Léopold Sédar Senghor.

The former president was also a media man, writing columns for

in the 2000s.

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