Tributes pour in for former French leader Valery Giscard
PARIS: France on Thursday mourned its former president Valery Giscard d’estaing ater he died from COVID-19 aged 94, with tributes hailing him as an ambitious social reformer and great European statesman.
Giscard, who had been in hospital several times in the last months for heart problems, died surrounded by his family on Wednesday at the family estate in the Loire region, his family said in a statement.
He ruled France for a single seven-year term from 1974-1981, during which the country made great strides in nuclear power, high-speed train travel and legalised abortion.
He ensured that Paris was at the heart of Europe in a post-war partnership with Germany and also played a key role in what would become the G7 group of major world powers.
In contrast to his predecessors Georges Pompidou and Charles de Gaulle, he was an accessible and media-savvy modern politician who enjoyed meeting voters. But he also never shook off a sometimes haughty demeanour that belied his aristocratic background.
His ambitions to carve out a deep place in history were derailed in 1981 when he lost a tightly-contested election to his Socialist rival Francois Miterrand, who would rule France for the next one-and-a-half decades.
“His seven-year mandate transformed France,” President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement.
“The direction he set for France still guides our way... his death has plunged the French nation into mourning,” Macron said. Macron will address the nation to pay tribute to Giscard at 1900 GMT, the Elysee said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel mourned the loss of a “great European.”
Giscard launched a radical reform drive which included legalising abortion, making it easier for couples to divorce and lowering the voting age to 18.
In Europe, Giscard helped drive moves towards a monetary union, in close co-operation with then German chancellor Helmut Schmidt, launching the system that was a precursor to the euro.
The europhile president was born in the German city of Koblenz while it was under French occupation in the atermath of World War I.
It was at his 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.