After crown complications: former French President d’Estaing has died

Former French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing has died at the age of 94. According to his family, he died as a result of a coronavirus disease.

Former French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing dies, who died at night at the age of 94 “surrounded by his family” on his farm in the municipality of Authon, as announced by those around him. According to the family, his death is related to a Covid 19 disease.

The former head of state had been hospitalized several times in recent months for heart problems. “His health had deteriorated and he died as a result of Covid-19,” the family said in a statement. “According to his wishes, his funeral will be held in a close family circle.”

Special friendship with Helmut Schmidt

Giscard d’Estaing was in charge of the French state from 1974 to 1981. He had a special friendship with the German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. Giscard d’Estaing also had a special connection to Germany when he was born: he was born on February 2, 1926 in Koblenz, when the city on the Rhine was still under French administration.

The son of a middle-class family grew up in France, graduated from the Polytechnic elite and the National School of Administration (ENA) and then quickly made a political career: at just 29 years old he became a member of parliament and at 36 years he was the youngest minister of economy and finance in France, and later at the age of 48 he was the youngest president of the Fifth Republic to date.

“Valéry Giscard d’Estaing will continue to be the president who modernized France,” wrote one of his successors, the socialist François Hollande, who ruled from 2017 to 2017, on Twitter. Giscard d’Estaing also helped strengthen the Franco-German tandem. Former Conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was in office from 2007 to 2012, praised Giscard d’Estaing as a politician who brought honor to France. The socialist mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, described the deceased as a “convinced European.”