Valéry Giscard d'Estaing

In 1956, he was elected to Parliament as a deputy for the Puy-de-Dôme département, in the domain of his maternal family. He joined the National Centre of Independents and Peasants (CNIP), a conservative grouping. After the proclamation of the Fifth Republic, the CNIP leader Antoine Pinay became Minister of Economy and Finance and chose him as Secretary of State for Finances from 1959 to 1962.

Giscard with US President John F. Kennedy at the White House, in Washington, D.C., 1962

In 1962, while Giscard had been nominated Minister of Economy and Finance, his party broke with the Gaullists and left the majority coalition. The CNIP reproached President Charles de Gaulle for his euroscepticism. But Giscard refused to resign and founded the Independent Republicans (RI), which became the junior partner of the Gaullists in the "presidential majority".

However, in 1966, he was dismissed from the cabinet. He transformed the RI into a political party, the National Federation of the Independent Republicans (FNRI), and founded the Perspectives and Realities Clubs. He did not leave the majority, but became more critical. In this, he criticised the "solitary practice of the power" and summarised his position towards De Gaulle's policy by a "yes, but ...". As chairman of the National Assembly Committee on Finances, he harassed his successor in the cabinet.

For that reason the Gaullists refused to re-elect him to that position after the 1968 legislative election. In 1969, unlike most of FNRI's elected officials, Giscard advocated a "no" vote in the constitutional referendum concerning the regions and the Senate, while De Gaulle had announced his intention to resign if the "no" won. The Gaullists accused him of being largely responsible for De Gaulle's departure.

During the 1969 presidential campaign he supported the winning candidate Georges Pompidou, after which he returned to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. On the French political scene, he appeared as a young brilliant politician, and a preeminent expert in economic issues. He was representative of a new generation of politicians emerging from the senior civil service, seen as "technocrats".

In 1974, after the sudden death of President Georges Pompidou, Giscard announced his candidacy for the presidency. His two main challengers were François Mitterrand for the left and Jacques Chaban-Delmas, a former Gaullist Prime Minister. Supported by his FNRI party, he obtained the rallying of the centrist Reforming Movement. Moreover, he benefited from the divisions in the Gaullist party. Jacques Chirac and other Gaullist personalities published the "Call of the 43" where they explained that Giscard was the best candidate to prevent the election of Mitterrand. In the election, Giscard finished well ahead of Chaban-Delmas in the first round, though coming second to Mitterrand. In the run-off on 20 May, however, Giscard narrowly defeated Mitterrand, receiving 50.7% of the vote.[8]

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing meeting with President of West Germany Walter Scheel in 1975

Giscard was finally elected President of France, defeating Socialist candidate François Mitterrand by 425,000 votes—still the closest election in French history. At 48, he was the third youngest president in French history at the time, after Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte and Jean Casimir-Perier. He promised "change in continuity". He made clear his desire to introduce various reforms and modernise French society, which was an important part of his presidency. He for instance reduced from 21 to 18 the age of majority and pushed for the development of the TGV high speed train network and the Minitel, a precursor of the Internet.[9] He promoted nuclear power, as a way to assert French independence. In 1975 he invited the heads of government from West Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States to a summit in Rambouillet, to form the Group of Six major economic powers (now the G7, including Canada). Economically, Giscard's presidency saw a steady rise in personal incomes, with the buying power of workers going up by 29% and old age pensioners by 65%.[10]

Giscard billed himself as "a conservative who likes change," and initially tried to project a less monarchical image than had been the case for past French presidents. He wore an ordinary business suit to his inauguration and eschewed the traditional motorcade down the Champs-Elysées in favour of strolling down the street. He took a ride on the Métro, ate monthly dinners with ordinary Frenchmen, and even invited garbage men from Paris to have breakfast with him in the Élysée Palace. 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.[11]

In home policy, the president's reforms worried the conservative electorate and the Gaullist party, especially the law by Simone Veil legalising abortion. 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.[12] He did not commute three of the death sentences that he had to decide upon during his presidency (although he did so in several other occasions), keeping France as the last country in the European Community to apply the death penalty. These executions would be the last ever in France and, had executions not resumed in the United States, the last in the Western world, as was the case until 1979 when John Spenkelink was executed by Florida. Death sentences were continually handed out in France for the remaining four years of Giscard's term but were all commuted in 1981, when capital punishment was abolished.

A rivalry arose with his Prime Minister Jacques Chirac, who resigned in 1976. Raymond Barre, called the "best economist in France" at the time, succeeded him. He led a policy of strictness in a context of economic crisis ("Plan Barre").

Unexpectedly, the right-wing coalition won the 1978 legislative election. Nevertheless, relations with Chirac, who had founded the Rally for the Republic (RPR), became more tense. Giscard reacted by founding a centre-right confederation, the Union for French Democracy (UDF).

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing with Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran in 1975

In 1975 Giscard pressured the future King of Spain Juan Carlos I to leave Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet out of his coronation by stating that if Pinochet attended he would not. Having been told by Juan Carlos I not to attend the coronation, Pinochet left Spain having only attended the funeral of Francisco Franco during his visit.[13] Although France received many Chilean political refugees, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's government secretly collaborated with Pinochet's and Videla's junta as shown by journalist Marie-Monique Robin.[14]

Giscard continued de Gaulle's African policy. It was supported with French military units, and a large naval presence in the Indian Ocean. Over 260,000 Frenchmen worked in Africa, focused especially on delivering oil supplies. There was some effort to build up oil refineries and aluminum smelters, but little effort to develop small-scale local industry, which the French wanted to monopolize for the mainland. Senegal, Ivory Coast, Gabon, and Cameroon were the largest and most reliable African allies, and received most of the investments.[15] In 1977, in the Opération Lamantin, he ordered fighter jets to deploy in Mauritania and suppress the Polisario guerrillas fighting against Mauritania, However the French-installed Mauritanian leader Moktar Ould Daddah was overthrown by his own army some time later, and a peace agreement was signed with the Sahrawi movement.

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in 1979 with Helmut Schmidt, Jimmy Carter and James Callaghan in Guadeloupe Conference.

Most controversial was his involvement with the regime of Jean-Bédel Bokassa in the Central African Republic. Giscard was initially a friend of Bokassa, and supplied the regime. However, the growing unpopularity of that government led Giscard to begin distancing himself from Bokassa. In 1979, French troops helped drive Bokassa out of power and restore former president David Dacko.[16] This action was also controversial, particularly since Dacko was Bokassa's cousin and had appointed Bokassa as head of the military, and unrest continued in the Central African Republic leading to Dacko being overthrown in another coup in 1981.

In the 1981 presidential election, Giscard took a severe blow to his support when Chirac ran against him in the first round. 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,[17] and since then has blamed Chirac for his defeat.[18] To this day, it is widely said that Giscard loathes Chirac. Certainly on many occasions Giscard has criticised Chirac's policies despite supporting Chirac's governing coalition.

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in 1986

After his defeat, Giscard retired temporarily from politics. In 1984, he regained his seat in Parliament and won the presidency of the regional council of Auvergne. In this position, he tried to encourage tourism to the région, founding the "European Centre of Volcanology" and theme park Vulcania. He was President of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions from 1997 to 2004.

In 1982, along with his friend Gerald Ford, he co-founded the annual AEI World Forum. He took part, with a prominent role, in the annual Bilderberg private conference. He has also served on the Trilateral Commission after being president, writing papers with Henry Kissinger.

He hoped to become Prime Minister of France during the first "cohabitation" (1986–88) or after the re-election of Mitterrand with the theme of "France united", but he was not chosen for this position. During the 1988 presidential campaign, he refused to choose publicly between the two right-wing candidates, his two former Prime Ministers Jacques Chirac and Raymond Barre. This attitude was interpreted as indicating that he wanted to regain the UDF leadership.

Indeed, 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 the "renovationmen". Most of the UDF politicians supported the candidacy of the RPR Prime Minister Édouard Balladur at the 1995 presidential election, but Giscard supported his old rival Jacques Chirac, who won the election. That same year Giscard suffered a setback when he lost a close election for the mayoralty of Clermont-Ferrand.[19]

In 2000, he made a parliamentary proposal to reduce the length of a presidential term from 7 to 5 years. President Chirac held a referendum on this issue, and the "yes" side won. He did not run for a new parliamentary term in 2002. His son Louis Giscard d'Estaing was elected in his constituency.

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in 2014

In 2003, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was admitted to the Académie française.[20]

Following his narrow defeat in the regional 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 the Constitutional Council as a former president of the Republic.[21] 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. 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 the Senate.[22][23]

Since then, Giscard has occasionally expressed opinions about current affairs. On 19 April 2007, he endorsed Nicolas Sarkozy for the presidential election. He has supported the creation of the centrist Union of Democrats and Independents in 2012 and the introduction of same-sex marriage in France in 2013. In 2016, he supported former Prime minister François Fillon in The Republicans presidential primaries.

A 2014 poll suggested that 64% of the French thought he had been a good president. He is considered to be an honest and competent politician, but also to be a distant man.[24]

On 21 January 2017, with a lifespan of 33,226 days, he surpassed Émile Loubet (1838–1929) in terms of longevity, and is now the oldest former president in French history.

On 17 December 1952, Giscard married his cousin Anne-Aymone Sauvage de Brantes, a daughter of Count François Sauvage de Brantes, who had died in a concentration camp in 1944, and his wife, the former Princess Aymone de Faucigny-Lucinge. Their children are: Valérie-Anne (1953–), Henri (Edmond Marie Valéry), Louis (Joachim Marie François) and Jacinte (Marguerite Marie) (1960–2018). Louis was a French conservative Representative; Henri is the president of the tourism company Club Méditerranée.

Giscard's private life was the source of many rumours at both national and international level. His family did not live in the presidential Élysée Palace, and The Independent reported on his affairs with women.[32] In 1974, Le Monde reported that he used to leave a sealed letter stating his whereabouts in case of emergency.[33]

He is an uncle of artist Aurore Giscard d'Estaing, who was formerly married to American actor Timothy Hutton.

In 2005 he and his brother bought the castle of Estaing, a famous place in the French district of Aveyron and formerly a possession of the above-mentioned admiral d'Estaing who was beheaded in 1794. The castle is not used as a residence but it has symbolic value. The two brothers explained that the purchase, supported by the local municipality, was an act of patronage. However, a number of major newspapers in several countries questioned their motives and some hinted at self-appointed nobility and a usurped historical identity.[34]

Giscard wrote his second romantic novel, published on 1 October 2009 in France, entitled The Princess and The President. It tells the story of a French head of state having a romantic liaison with a character called Patricia, Princess of Cardiff. This fuelled rumours that the piece of fiction was based on a real-life liaison between Giscard and Diana, Princess of Wales.[35] He later stressed that the story was entirely made up and no such affair had happened.[36]

• Grand-croix (and former Grand Master) of the Legion of Honour[37]
• Grand-croix (and former Grand Master) of the Ordre National du Mérite[37]
• Croix de guerre 1939–1945[37]

In 2003 he received the Charlemagne Award of the German city of Aachen. He is also a Knight of Malta.

He travels the world giving speeches on the European Union. During a visit to Ireland, d'Estaing was made an Honorary Patron of the University Philosophical Society, Trinity College, Dublin.

•  Italy: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (10/1973)[38]
•  Norway: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Olav (1962)

•  Brazil: Grand Collar of the Order of the Southern Cross (26 April 1976)[39]
•  Denmark: Knight of the Order of the Elephant (12 October 1978)[40][41]
•  Portugal: Grand Collar of the Order of Saint James of the Sword (14 October 1975)[42]
•  Portugal: Grand Collar of the Order of Prince Henry (21 October 1978)[42]
•  Spain: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic (1963)[43]
•  Spain: Knight with Collar of the Order of Isabella the Catholic (1976)
•  Spain: Knight with Collar of the Order of Charles III (1978)[44]
•  Sweden: Knight of the Order of the Seraphim (6 June 1980)[45]

•  Sovereign Order of Malta: Bailiff Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta
•  Sovereign Order of Malta: Grand Cross pro Merito Melitensi