Valéry Giscard d'Estaing: Mourning a European giant

Le Monde provides a brief biography of the former French president, who passed away on Wednesday as a result of a Covid-19 infection. At the age of 36, Giscard was appointed Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs under Georges Pompidou. In 1974, he ran in the 1974 presidential elections, defeating Jacques Chaban-Delmas and François Mitterrand and thus becoming the youngest President of the Republic since 1848. During the campaign, he established himself as a modern, dynamic politician, embodying renewal in the face of his rivals. His “advanced liberal society” entailed new laws such as the decriminalisation of abortion and the right of referral to the Constitutional Council. His international policies are marked by his strengthening of European unity. Together with German Chancellor, Helmut Schmidt, Giscard influenced the creation of the European Council in December 1974. Following the 1989 European elections, Giscard entered the European Parliament. During his years in Brussels, he served as President of the European Movement International until 1997. On May 29, 2003, he received the ‘Charlemagne Prize’ for having "advanced the unification process" in Europe. 

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L’Echo reports on what the former President has meant for Europe. Former French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who led France from 1974 to 1981 with a dash of modernity, died on Wednesday at the age of 94 as a result of Covid-19. He promulgated important social reforms, such as lowering of the right to vote to 18 years old. Giscard was also an ardent European who worked together with Chancellor Helmut Schmidt to keep Franco-German ties strong. His taste for international affairs led him to be the father of the G7. On Twitter, ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy said that “Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, who strove his entire life to strengthen the ties between European nations, succeeded in modernising political life, and devoted his great mind to analysing the most complex of international issues.” Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel remarked that “France has lost a statesman, Germany has lost a friend, and we have all lost a great European.”

Der Spiegel writes about the last public appearance of the deceased former French president. Valéry Giscard d’Estaing was last seen in public in September 2019, attending the funeral service for Jacques Chirac. Chirac had once held the office of Prime Minister during Giscard’s presidency, and although the two men had a complicated and sometimes fraught relationship, Giscard came to pay his respects. At the funeral, Giscard met current French President Emmanuel Macron, whose European policy he praised following the 2017 elections. He also developed a close rapport with German politicians, not least Helmut Schmidt. Yet Giscard’s life was also marred by occasional scandal. In his capacity as Minister of Economics and Finance, he received diamonds as a gift from dictator Jean-Bedel Bokassa, then President of the Central African Republic. Moreover, in May this year, the French authorities opened an investigation against him for sexual harassment. WDR journalist Ann-Kathrin Stracke accused Giscard of touching her inappropriately and repeatedly, allegations the ex-President denied. 

Times of Malta reports on the influence Valéry Giscard d’Estaing had on France and Europe according to various prominent French politicians. "His death has plunged the French nation into mourning," Macron said, describing Giscard as "a servant of the state, and a politician of progress and freedom." In 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 tenure practically coincided with his own. Together they launched the European Monetary System (EMS), a precursor of today's single currency, the euro. "For Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Europe was to be a French ambition, and France a modern nation," said Michel Barnier, the EU's chief Brexit negotiator. With his death, France "has lost a statesman who chose to open up to the world," added Sarkozy's Socialist successor Francois Hollande. He hailed a man who was "resolutely European," and who helped strengthen Franco-German unity.