Dead Giscard d’Estaing, an aristocrat who knew how to modernize civil society – Corriere.it

Sreplaced only by Emmanuel Macron as the youngest president of France, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, elected a member of the Elysée at the age of 48, also for these personal data represented the modernization of French society and the renewal of the law until then embodied by the Gaullist tradition. His seven-year term was characterized by important civil reforms, from the lowering of the civil and electoral age of majority to the decriminalization of abortion (Simone Veil joined his government), and by a policy of liberalization of the economy. The high-speed train projects, the decisive relaunch of nuclear energy, the first steps in information technology, the famous “Minitel” date from that time.

Algid, an aristocrat with a family tradition, Giscard managed to beat the socialist François Mitterrand by a hair and delay the political process that would bring the united left to power seven years later. In one of the first American-style television comparisons, Giscard uttered a phrase that remained historic and decisive: “You don’t have a monopoly on the heart.” Among other things, Giscard had actively participated in the Resistance, without the ambiguities of the future socialist president. The figure of Giscard d’Estaing is linked to decisive steps of the European Union, from the nucleus of the single monetary system (EMS) to the European Council and the constitutional process. Under his presidency, one of the most famous works in Paris, the Musée d’Orsay, is inaugurated.