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Valery Giscard d’Estaing, president of France from 1974 to 1981, who became a champion of European integration, died on Wednesday. He was 94 years old.
Giscard d’Estaing’s office said he passed away at his family’s home in the Loir-et-Cher region of central France after contracting Covid-19.
“In accordance with his wishes, his funeral will be held in strict privacy,” his office said.
Giscard d’Estaing was hospitalized last month for heart problems, but he remained vigorous into old age.
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In a January 2020 interview with The Associated Press, he displayed a firm handshake and a keen eye, recounting details of his meetings as French president in the 1970s with then-US President Jimmy Carter and then-Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat. , whose photos adorned his office walls
He wrote the article in the EU letter that allowed Brexit to happen, the brief measure that allows a member state to leave the bloc.
On the eve of Britain’s departure this year, Giscard told the AP that it was a “step backwards” geopolitically, but that he had a long-term vision. “We functioned without Britain during the early years of the European Union … So we will rediscover a situation that we already knew.”
Charles Plates / AP
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, center, speaks with former French Presidents Jacques Chirac, right, and Valery Giscard d’Estaing, in Paris in 2010.
Born in Germany in the wake of World War I, Giscard d’Estaing helped liberate Paris from the Nazis in the next world war, later laying the foundation for the shared euro currency and helping to integrate Britain into what is became the EU in the 1970s.
Seeing the British leave, “I am very sorry,” he said.
He remained unfailingly optimistic on the European project, predicting that the EU and the euro would rebound and gradually grow stronger and bigger despite the challenges of losing a major member.
When he took office in 1974, Giscard d’Estaing started out as the model for a modern French president, a conservative with liberal views on social issues.
Uncredited / AP
In this May 1977 file photo, US President Jimmy Carter, right, and Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II are photographed with French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing, at Buckingham Palace in London.
Abortion and divorce by mutual consent were legalized under his mandate and he reduced the age of majority from 21 to 18 years.
He played his accordion in working-class neighborhoods. One Christmas morning, he invited four passing garbage men to breakfast at the presidential palace.
He lost his candidacy for reelection in 1981 to the socialist Francois Mitterrand.
Born in 1926 in Koblenz, Germany, where his father was CFO of the French occupation administration after World War I, he grew up with a pan-European vision. After joining the French Resistance during World War II, he saw Germany as a tank commander in the French army in 1944.
Uncredited / AP
In this March 6, 1975 file photo, Central African Republic President Jean-Bedel Bokassa with French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing during a visit by the latter to Bangui, Central African Republic in Bangui.
In 1952 he married Anne-AymoneIt de Brantes, daughter of an earl and heir to a steel fortune. They had four children: Valerie-Anne, Louis, Henri, and Jacinte.
The young Giscard d’Estaing studied at the prestigious Polytechnic Institute and then the elite National School of Administration, before mastering economics at Oxford.
President Charles de Gaulle appointed him Minister of Finance at the age of 36.
After his defeat in the 1981 presidential election, he temporarily retired from politics.
Uncredited / AP
In this June 28, 1979 file photo, French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing, left, talks to German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, in Tokyo.
Then he found a second calling in the European Union. He worked on drafting a European Constitution that was formally introduced in 2004, but was rejected by French and Dutch voters. However, it paved the way for the adoption of the Treaty on European Union in 2007.
At the age of 83 he published a romantic novel called The princess and the president, which he said was based on Princess Diana, with whom he said he talked about writing a love story.
When asked about the nature of their relationship, he only said, “Let’s not overdo it. I got to know her a little in a climate of confidential relationship. He needed to communicate. “
Francois Mori / AP
The young Giscard d’Estaing studied at the prestigious Polytechnic Institute and then the elite National School of Administration, before mastering economics at Oxford.
Earlier this year, a German journalist accused Giscard of repeatedly grabbing her during an interview and filed a sexual assault complaint with prosecutors in Paris. Giscard’s French lawyer said the 94-year-old former president “has no memory” of the incident.
Former French President Francois Hollande paid tribute to “a statesman who had chosen to open up to the world and thought that Europe was a condition for France to be greater.”
Hollande’s predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, expressed “deep sadness”. Giscard d’Estaing “made France proud,” he said.
Associated Press writer Angela Charlton contributed to the story.
