RFI
French former president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing dies of Covid at 94
French former president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, a leading advocate of European integration who led his country into a new era, has died of Covid-19, according to an announcement from his family. He was 94 years of age. Giscard, who had been in hospital several times in recent months for heart problems, died late Wednesday “surrounded by his family” at his 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 sent to the French AFP press agency, adding that his funeral would be strictly private, according to his wishes.French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to his predecessor, saying Giscard’s seven-year term had “transformed France”.A nation in mourning”His death has plunged the French nation into mourning”, Macron said, describing Giscard as “a servant of the state, a politician of progress and of freedom”.Giscard made one of his last public appearances on 30 September last year for the funeral of another former president, Jacques Chirac, who had been his prime minister.He became the 20th century’s youngest president at 48 when in 1974 he beat his Socialist rival François Mitterrand, to whom he then lost after his seven-year term in 1981 in a failed re-election bid.His presidency marked a clear break from the Gaullist conservatism of postwar France, which had been dominated by Charles de Gaulle and his successor Georges Pompidou.Radical reformer of French societyIn France, he is remembered for his radical reform drive, which included the legalisation of abortion, the liberalisation of divorce and the lowering of the voting age to 18.In Europe, he helped drive moves towards a monetary union, in close cooperation with his German counterpart 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 today’s single currency, the euro.”For Valery Giscard d’Estaing, Europe was to be a French ambition and France a modern nation. My sincere respect,” said Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator.A political moderniserHe “succeeded in modernising political life in France,” added former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, praising the “great intelligence” Giscard 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”, added Sarkozy’s Socialist successor François Hollande. He hailed a man who was “resolutely European” who helped strengthen Franco-German unity.It was at Giscard’s initiative that leaders of the world’s richest countries first met in 1975, an event that evolved into the annual summits of the Group of Seven (G7) club.
