After serving asMinister of Finance under prime ministersJacques Chaban-Delmas andPierre Messmer, Giscard d'Estaing won thepresidential election of 1974 with 50.8% of the vote againstFrançois Mitterrand of theSocialist Party. His tenure was marked by a more liberal attitude on social issues—such as divorce, contraception and abortion—and by attempts to modernise the country and the office of the presidency, notably overseeing such far-reaching infrastructure projects as theTGV and the turn towards reliance onnuclear power as France's main energy source. Giscard d'Estaing launched theGrande Arche,Musée d'Orsay,Arab World Institute andCité des Sciences et de l'Industrie projects in the Paris region, later included in theGrands Projets of François Mitterrand. He promoted liberalisation of trade; however, his popularity suffered from the economic downturn that followed the1973 energy crisis, marking the end of the "Trente Glorieuses" (the "Thirty Glorious Years" of prosperity after 1945). He imposed austerity budgets, and allowed unemployment to rise in order to avoid deficits. Giscard d'Estaing in the centre faced political opposition from both sides of the spectrum: from the newly unified left under Mitterrand and a risingJacques Chirac, who resurrectedGaullism on a right-wing opposition line. In 1981, despite a high approval rating, he wasdefeated in a runoff against Mitterrand, with 48.2% of the vote.
Valéry René Marie Georges Giscard d'Estaing[6] was born on 2 February 1926 inKoblenz,Germany, during the Frenchoccupation of the Rhineland.[7] 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.[8] His mother was the daughter of senator and academicAchille Octave Marie Jacques Bardoux, and a granddaughter of minister of state educationAgénor Bardoux.[9]
Giscard d'Estaing in the 1940s
Giscard had an elder sister, Sylvie, and younger siblingsOlivier, Isabelle, and Marie-Laure.[10] Despite the addition of "d'Estaing" to the family name by his grandfather, Giscard was not a male-line descendant of the extinct aristocratic family ofVice-Admiral d'Estaing.[11] His connection to theD'Estaing family was very remote. 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, Gilbertede La Rochefoucauld (1560–1623).[12]
In 1962, while Giscard had been nominatedMinister of Economy and Finance, his party broke with the Gaullists and left the majority coalition.[15][11] Giscard refused to resign and founded theIndependent Republicans (RI), which became the junior partner of the Gaullists in the "presidential majority".[14] It was during his time at the Ministry of the Economy that he coined the phrase "exorbitant privilege" to characterise the hegemony of the US dollar in international payments under theBretton Woods system.[20][21]
However, in 1966, he was dismissed from the cabinet.[15] He transformed the RI into a political party, theNational Federation of the Independent Republicans (FNRI), and founded thePerspectives and Realities Clubs.[15][14] In this, he criticised the "solitary practice of the power" and summarised his position towards De Gaulle's policy by a "yes, but ...".[22] As chairman of the National Assembly Committee on Finances, he criticised his successor in the cabinet.[14]
For that reason the Gaullists refused to re-elect him to that position after the1968 legislative election.[14] In 1969, unlike most of FNRI's elected officials, Giscard advocated a "no" vote in theconstitutional referendum concerning the regions and the Senate, while De Gaulle had announced his intention to resign if the "no" won.[23] The Gaullists accused him of being largely responsible for De Gaulle's departure.[23][14]
During the1969 presidential campaign, he supported the winning candidateGeorges Pompidou, after which he returned to the Ministry of Economy and Finance.[14] He was representative of a new generation of politicians emerging from the senior civil service, seen as "technocrats".[24]
In 1974, after the sudden death of President Georges Pompidou, Giscard announced his candidacy for the presidency.[11][15] His two main challengers wereFrançois Mitterrand for the left andJacques Chaban-Delmas, a former Gaullist prime minister.[25]Jacques Chirac and other Gaullist personalities published theCall of the 43 [fr] where they explained that Giscard was the best candidate to prevent the election of Mitterrand.[26] Inthe election, Giscard finished well ahead of Chaban-Delmas in the first round, though coming second to Mitterrand.[14] In the run-off on 20 May, however, Giscard narrowly defeated Mitterrand, receiving 50.7% of the vote.[27]
In his appointments, he was innovative regarding women. He gave major cabinet positions toSimone Veil as Minister of Health andFrançoise Giroud as secretary for women's affairs. Giroud worked to improve access to meaningful employment and to reconcile careers with childbearing. Veil confronted the abortion issue.[29][30]
On taking office, Giscard was quick to initiate reforms; they included increasing the minimum wage as well as family allowances and old-age pensions.[31] 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. 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.[32]
He pushed for the development of theTGVhigh speed train network and theMinitel telephone upgrade, a precursor of the Internet.[33] He promotednuclear power, as a way to assert French independence.[34]
Economically, Giscard's presidency saw a steady rise in personal incomes, with the purchasing power of workers going up by 29% and that of old age pensioners by 65%.[35]
The great crisis that overwhelmed his term was a worldwide economic crisis based on rapidly rising oil prices. He turned to Prime MinisterRaymond Barre in 1976, who advocated numerous complex, strict policies ("Barre Plans"). The first Barre plan emerged on 22 September 1976, with a priority to stop inflation. 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. There were measures to restore the trade balance, and support the growth of the economy and employment. Oil imports, whose price had shot up, were limited. There was special aid to exports, and an action fund was set up to aid industries. There was increased financial aid to farmers, who were suffering from a drought, and for social security. The package was not very popular, but was pursued with vigor.[36]
Giscard initially tried to project a less monarchical image than had been the case for past French presidents.[24] He took a ride on theMétro, ate monthly dinners with ordinary Frenchmen, and even invited garbage men from Paris to have breakfast with him in theÉlysée Palace.[37] 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.[38][page needed]
In domestic policy, Giscard's reforms worried the conservative electorate and theGaullist party, especially the law bySimone Veil legalising abortion.[39] 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.[40] He did not commute three of the death sentences that he had to decide upon during his presidency. France under his administration was thusthe last country in the European Community to apply the death penalty, and until theresumption of executions in the United States in 1977, the only one in the Western world. Thelast death sentence, bearing Giscard's signature, was executed in September 1977, thelast ratified by theCourt of Cassation in March 1981, but rescinded by presidential pardon after Giscard's defeat in the presidential election in May.[14][41]
A rivalry arose with his Prime Minister Jacques Chirac, who resigned in 1976.[42]Raymond Barre, called the "best economist in France" at the time, succeeded him.[14]
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was a close friend of West German chancellorHelmut Schmidt and together they persuaded smaller European states to hold regular summit meetings, and set up theEuropean Monetary System.[43] They induced the Soviet Union to establish a degree of liberalisation through theHelsinki Accords.[44]
He promoted the creation of theEuropean Council at the Paris Summit in December 1974. In 1975, he invited the heads of government from West Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States to a summit inRambouillet, to form theGroup of Six major economic powers (now the G7, including Canada and the European Union).[45]
In 1975, Giscard pressured the future King of SpainJuan Carlos I to leave Chilean dictatorAugusto Pinochet out of his coronation by stating that if Pinochet attended he would not.[24] Although France received many Chilean political refugees, Giscard d'Estaing's government secretly collaborated withPinochet's andVidela's juntas as shown by journalistMarie-Monique Robin.[46]
Giscard d'Estaing sought to improve Franco-Romanian ties and in 1979 visitedBucharest. In 1980 he received Romanian presidentNicolae Ceaucescu as a guest in Paris.[47]
Giscard continued de Gaulle'sAfrican policy, and sought to maintain good relations with Middle East Muslim countries so that they would continue delivering oil to France.[48] Senegal, Ivory Coast, Gabon, and Cameroon were the largest and most reliable African allies, and received most of the investments.[49] In 1977, inOpération Lamantin, he ordered fighter jets to deploy inMauritania and suppress thePolisario guerrillas fighting against the Mauritanian government.[50]
The most important advisor on African affairs during the Giscard era wasRené Journiac, successor ofJacques Foccart at the Secretariat for African and Malagasy Affairs, which was renamed to the "African Department [fr]" (Cellule africaine). Journiac largely continued Foccart's approach of maintaining French influence in itsformer colonies through a web of personal relationships with Africanstrongmen.[51][52] In 1977, documents forgotten by themercenaryBob Denard duringa coup attempt inBenin suggested that Denard's group had received support from official channels, namely through Journiac.[53]
Most controversial was Giscard's involvement with the regime ofJean-Bédel Bokassa in theCentral African Republic.[54] Giscard was initially a friend of Bokassa, and supplied the regime.[54] The growing unpopularity of that government led Giscard to begin distancing himself from Bokassa.[54] In 1979'sOperation Caban, French troops helped drive Bokassa out of power and restore former presidentDavid Dacko to power.[55] This action was also controversial, particularly given that Dacko was Bokassa's cousin and had appointed Bokassa as head of the military; and unrest continued in the Central African Republic, leading toDacko being overthrown in another coup in 1981.[54][14]
TheDiamonds Affair, known in France asl'affaire des diamants, was a major political scandal in theFifth Republic. In 1973, whileMinister of Finance, Giscard d'Estaing was given a number of diamonds by Bokassa. The affair was unveiled by the satirical newspaperLe Canard Enchaîné on 10 October 1979, towards the end of Giscard's presidency.
In order to defend himself, Giscard d'Estaing claimed to have sold the diamonds and donated the proceeds to theCentral African Red Cross. He expected CARC authorities to confirm the story. However, the head of the local Red Cross society,Jeanne-Marie Ruth-Rolland, publicly denied the French claims. Ruth-Rolland was quickly dismissed from her post in what she described as a"coup de force" by Dacko.[56] The saga contributed to Giscard losing his1981 reelection bid.[57]
Giscard d'Estaing fancied himself a peace-maker with theSoviet Union and their embroilment in Afghanistan. At their summit in May 1980, he proposed an arrangement that would seeLeonid Brezhnev partially withdraw his forces and thought the latter had agreed, only to be humiliated in front of his G7 partners when Brezhnev fooled him with a lie. His Socialist rival,François Mitterrand, acidly observed in theAssemblée Nationale that he was the "petit télégraphiste de Varsovie" ("little telegraph operator from Warsaw").[58]
In the1981 presidential election, Giscard took a severe blow to his support when Chirac ran against him in thefirst round.[15] Chirac finished third and refused to recommend that his supporters back Giscard in the runoff, though he declared that he himself would vote for Giscard. Giscard lost to Mitterrand by 3 points in the runoff[59] and blamed Chirac for his defeat thereafter.[60] In later years, it was widely said that Giscard loathed Chirac;[61] certainly on many occasions Giscard criticised Chirac's policies despite supporting Chirac's governing coalition.[42]
While campaigning for the 1981 French election, Giscard was the target of anattempted assassination at Ajaccio airport on 16 April 1981. The attack was carried out by the Gravona brigade of theNational Liberation Front of Corsica (FLNC). The FLNC had recently declared a ceasefire on 1 April 1981 as not to hinder the left in the upcoming elections, but disdain for Giscard and the right was still present. The Gravona brigade, led byFrançois Santoni, placed two time bombs in the airport terminal in an area where Giscard was predicted to enter. The bombs went off two minutes after he entered the terminal, though he never entered the half of the building where the bombs were stored, and made it out unharmed.[62] In a speech he delivered right after the attack, he condemned the action, calling it a "cowardly" attack and stated that it was an "attitude unworthy of Corsica."[63]
Giscard's farewell speech as president became a legendary moment in French television. After delivering a solemn seven-minute address, he paused and bade a pronounced "Au revoir" before walking out as "La Marseillase" was played, leaving audiences to view his empty desk for the duration of the song.[64]
He hoped to becomeprime minister during the first "cohabitation" (1986–1988) or after the re-election of Mitterrand with the theme of "France united", but he was not chosen for this position.[14] During the1988 presidential campaign, he refused to choose publicly between the two right-wing candidates, his two former Prime MinistersJacques Chirac andRaymond Barre.[14]
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 therénovateurs ("renovation men").[69] Most of the UDF politicians supported the candidacy of the RPR Prime MinisterÉdouard Balladur at the1995 presidential election, but Giscard supported his old rival Jacques Chirac, who won the election.[70] That same year Giscard suffered a setback when he lost a close election for the mayoralty ofClermont-Ferrand.[71]
In 2000, he made a parliamentary proposal to reduce the length of a presidential term from seven to five years, a proposal that eventually won its referendum proposal by President Chirac.[72] Following his retirement from the National Assembly his sonLouis Giscard d'Estaing was elected in his former constituency.[15]
Following his narrow defeat in theregional 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 theConstitutional Council as a former president of the country.[74] Some of his actions there, such as his campaign in favour of the treaty establishing the European Constitution, were criticised as unbecoming to a member of this council, which should embody nonpartisanship and should not appear to favour one political option over the other.[75] 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 theSenate.[76]
A 2014 poll suggested that 64% of the French thought he had been a good president.[79] He was considered to be an honest and competent politician, but also a distant man.[79]
On 21 January 2017, with a lifespan of 33,226 days, he surpassedÉmile Loubet (1838–1929) in terms of longevity, and became the oldest former president in French history.[24]
Giscard d'Estaing (centre) at theEPP Congress in Brussels, 2004
Throughout his political career, Giscard was a proponent of a greater amount ofEuropean integration in theEuropean Community (in what would become the European Union).[15] In 1978, he was for this reason the obvious target ofJacques Chirac'sCall of Cochin, denouncing the "party of the foreigners".[80]
Giscard d'Estaing attracted international attention at the time of theJune 2008 Irish vote on theLisbon Treaty.[84] In an article forLe Monde in June 2007, published in English translation byThe Irish Times, he said that a "divide and ratify" approach, whereby "public opinion would be led to adopt, without knowing it, the proposals we dare not present to them directly", would be unworthy and would reinforce the idea that the construction of Europe was being organised behind the public's backs by lawyers and diplomats;[85][86] the quotation was taken out of context by prominent supporters of a "no" vote and distorted to give the impression that Giscard was advocating such a deception, instead of repudiating it.[87][88][89]
Giscard's name was often shortened to "VGE" by theFrench media.[11] He was also known simply asl'Ex, particularly during the time he was the only living former president.[94]
Giscard's private life was the source of many rumours at both national and international level.[95] His family did not live in the presidentialÉlysée Palace, andThe Independent reported on his affairs with women.[95] In 1974,Le Monde reported that he used to leave a sealed letter stating his whereabouts in case of emergency.[96]
In May 2020, Giscard was accused of groping a German journalist's buttocks during an interview in 2018.[97] He denied the accusation.[97]
In 2005 he and his brother bought the castle ofEstaing, formerly a possession of the above-mentioned Admiral d'Estaing who was beheaded in 1794.[14][98] The brothers never used the castle as a residence but for its symbolic value, and they explained the purchase, supported by the local municipality, as an act of patronage.[98] However, a number of major newspapers in several countries questioned their motives and some hinted at self-appointed nobility and a usurped historical identity.[99][98] The castle was put up for sale in 2008 for €3 million[98] and is now the property of the Valéry Giscard d'Estaing Foundation.[100]
Giscard wrote his second romantic novel, published on 1 October 2009 in France, entitledThe Princess and the President.[101] It tells the story of French President Jacques-Henri Lambertye having a romantic liaison with Patricia, Princess of Cardiff of the British royal family.[101] This fuelled rumours that the piece of fiction was based on a real-life liaison between Giscard andDiana, Princess of Wales.[101] He later stressed that the story was entirely made up and no such affair had actually occurred.[102]
On 14 September 2020, Giscard d'Estaing was hospitalised for care for breathing complications at theHôpital Européen Georges-Pompidou in Paris.[103] He was later diagnosed with alung infection.[104] He was hospitalised again on 15 November,[105] but was discharged on 20 November.[106]
Giscard d'Estaing died from complications attributed toCOVID-19 on 2 December 2020, at the age of 94.[11][41][107] His family said that his funeral would be held in "strict intimacy".[14] His funeral and burial was held on 5 December in Authon with forty people attending the event.[108]
Giscard d'Estaing was seen as the pioneer in modernising France and strengthening the European Union.[15] He introduced numerous small social reforms, such as reducing the voting age by three years, allowing divorce by common consent, and legalising abortion.[15][14] He was committed to supporting innovative technology, and focused on creating theTGV high-speed rail network, promoting nuclear power, and developing the telephone system.[15][24]
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.[15] His foreign policy was remembered for his close relationship with West German ChancellorHelmut Schmidt, and together they persuaded Europe's lesser economic powers to collaborate and form new permanent organisations, especially theEuropean Monetary System and the G-7 system.[113]
In December 2022, Anne-Aymone Giscard d'Estaing put up some of her late husband's art and furniture for sale atHotel Drouot: the collection included aRodin bust ofMahler.[114]
^"Family bid adieu to former French leader Giscard in intimate ceremony".Metro US. Reuters. 5 December 2020. Retrieved18 December 2020.Giscard's coffin was carried to the church in Authon, central France, by four pall bearers, draped in the flags of France and the European Union ... He will be buried close to the grave of his daughter in a private plot next to the village's cemetery.
^"Fichier des décès au mois de décembre 2020" [Death file for the month of December 2020] (in French). National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. Retrieved26 January 2021.
^Quoted inGordon Shenton (1976), "The Advancement of Women in Giscard d'Estaing's 'Advanced Liberal Society'",The Massachusetts Review,17 (4): 749,JSTOR25088694.
^Servenay, David (2023). "Foccart, Marenches, Journiac : trois « crocodiles » dans le marigot du renseignement franco-africain". In Borrel, Thomas; Boukari-Yabara, Amzat; Collombat, Benoît; Deltombe, Thomas (eds.).Une histoire de la Françafrique: L'empire qui ne veut pas mourir.Seuil. pp. 504–505.ISBN9782757897751.
^Bradshaw, Richard; Fandos-Rius, Juan (2016).Historical Dictionary of the Central African Republic (new ed.). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 550–551.ISBN978-0-8108-7991-1.
^"Giscard d'Estaing, Valéry".International Who's Who 1989–90. Europa Publications. 1935.ISBN978-0-946653-50-8.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
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