Valéry Giscard d'Estaing

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
20th President of the French Republic
In office 19 May, 1974 – 10 May, 1981
Preceded by	Georges Pompidou followed by Alain Poher (interim)
Succeeded by	François Mitterrand
Personal details
Born	(1926-02-02) February 2, 1926 Koblenz, Germany
Political party	Union for French Democracy, Union for a Popular Movement from 2002
Spouse	Anne-Aymone Sauvage de Brantes

Valéry Marie René Giscard d'Estaing (born 2 February, 1926 in Koblenz, Germany) is a French center-right politician who was President of the French Republic from 1974 until 1981. He is currently the only living former French president.

His tenure as President was marked by a rupture with his predecessor on social issues such as divorce, contraception and abortion and his attempts to modernize his country and his office, notably launching such far-reaching infrastructure projects as the high-speed TGV train and the turn towards reliance on nuclear power as France's main energy source. However, the economic downturn that followed the 1973 energy crisis, marking the end of the "thirty glorious years" after World War II, combined the official discourse that the "end the tunnel was near", while the presidency was facing opposition on both sides with the unification of the left by François Mitterrand and the rise of up-and-comer Jacques Chirac who resurrected Gaullism on a right-wing opposition line, and bad public relations caused his unpopularity to grow at the end of his term, and he failed to secure re-election in 1981.

He is a proponent of the United States of Europe and, having limited his involvement in national politics after his defeat, he became involved with the European Union. He notably presided over the Convention on the Future of Europe that drafted the ill-fated Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. He was elected to the French Academy to the seat that his friend and former President of Senegal Léopold Sédar Senghor held. As former President, he is also entitled to a seat on the Constitutional Council, although he had refused this prerogative until recently.

Biography

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing is the son of Jean Edmond Lucien Giscard d'Estaing (1894 - 1982), a French civil servant, and his wife, Marthe Clémence Jacqueline Marie (May) Bardoux, who was a daughter of French senator and academic Jacques Bardoux and a great-granddaughter of French minister of state education Agénor Bardoux, and also a great-great-great-granddaughter of King Louis XV of France, by whom Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was a multiple descendant of Charlemagne, the (true, one and only) Father of Europe. Despite the addition of "d'Estaing" to the family name by his grandfather, Giscard is not descended from the extinct noble family of Vice-Admiral d'Estaing, that name being adopted by his grandfather in 1922 by reason of a distant connection to another branch of that family.

He studied at Lycée Blaise-Pascal in Clermont-Ferrand, Ecole Gerson and Lycées Janson-de-Sailly and Louis-le-Grand in Paris. He graduated from the École Polytechnique and the École nationale d'administration (1949 - 1951). He acceded to the Inland Revenue Service, then joined the staff of Prime minister Edgar Faure (1955 - 1956).

His political rise

In 1956, he was elected in Parliament as deputy of Puy-de-Dôme département, in the domain of his maternal family. He joined the National Center 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 chosen him as Secretary of State for Finances from 1959 to 1962.

In 1962, while Valéry Giscard d'Estaing had nominated Minister of Economy and Finance, his party broke with the Gaullists and left the majoritary coalition. The CNIP reproached President De Gaulle with his euro-scepticism. But VGE refused to resign and founded the Independent Republicans (RI). It was the small partner of the Gaullists in the "presidential majority".

However, in 1966, he was dismissed from the cabinet. He did not leave the majority but became more critical. In this, he criticized the "solitary practice of the power" and summed his position towards De Gaulle's policy by a "yes, but...". Chairman of the commission of finance in the National Assembly, he harassed his successor in the cabinet. In 1969, contrary to the most part of RI elects, he called to vote "no" in the referendum about regions and Senate, while De Gaulle had announced his intention to resign if the "no" won. The Gaullists reproached him with to be responsible of De Gaulle's departure.

During the 1969 presidential campaign, he supported the winning candidate Georges Pompidou and came back in the Ministry of Economy and Finance. On the French political scene, he appeared as a young brilliant politician, best expert in the economic issues. He is represantative of a new generation of politicians coming from the senior civil service, and presenting like "technicians".

In 1974, after the sudden death of President Pompidou, he 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 all the non-Gaullist center-right, he benefited from the divisions in the Gaullist party. Jacques Chirac and other Gaullist personalities published the "Call of the 43" where they explained Giscard is the best candidate for prevent the election of Mitterrand. VGE crushed Chaban-Delmas in the first round, then defeated narrowly Mitterrand in the second (50.8%).

Presidency

In 1974, he was elected President of France when he was 48. At the time, he was the youngest president in French history. He promised "the change in the continuity". His presidency was marked with a desire to introduce various reforms and modernize French society. He for instance pushed for the development of the TGV high speed train network.

He pursued a controversial course in foreign policy. In 1977, in the Opération Lamantin, he ordered French fighter jets to deploy in Mauritania and go to war against the Polisario guerrilla fighting against Mauritanian military occupation of Western Sahara. But not even overt military backing proved sufficient to rescue the French-installed Mauritanian leader Mokhtar Ould Daddah, as he was overthrown by his own army some time later, and a peace agreement was signed with the Sahrawi resistance.

Most controversial, however, was his involvement with the Bokassa regime of the Central African Republic. Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was at first a friend of its ruler, Jean-Bédel Bokassa; he supplied Bokassa's regime with much financial and military backing. 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. This was hardly much of a change however, and more of a cosmetic facelift, as d'Estaing's support of Dacko was support for a cousin of Bokassa. Furthermore, Dacko had appointed his cousin Bokassa as head of the Central African Republic's military in the first place in 1965.

In a related incident, Giscard was reported by the Canard Enchaîné to have accepted diamonds as personal gifts from Bokassa--who fled to France with looted millions from Central Africa Republic's treasury, and was accepted in France regardless. Presidential official gifts legally are property of the Republic of France instead of d'Estaing. Giscard supporters contended that the diamonds were industrial-grade and thus had no sizeable monetary value.

In home policy, these reforms worried the conservative electorate and the Gaullist party. A rivalry appeared with his Prime minister Jacques Chirac, who resigned in 1976. Raymond Barre, claimed "best economist of France", succeeded him. His led a policy of strictness in a context of economic crisis (Plan Barre). The unemployment grew.

Miraculously, the right-wing coalition won the 1978 legislative election. Nevertheless, the relations with Chirac, who had founded the Rally for the Republic (RPR), became more tense. VGE reacted by the constitution of a center-right confederation, the Union for French Democracy (UDF).

Giscard was defeated in the French Presidential Election of 1981 by Mitterrand. At the time, Chirac ran against Giscard in the first round of runoff voting and declined to call his voters to elect Giscard, though he declared that he himself would vote for Giscard. Since then, Giscard has always attributed his defeat to Chirac, and he is widely said to loathe Chirac. Certainly, on many occasions, Giscard has criticized Chirac's policies, despite supporting Chirac's governing coalition.

Later career

After his defeat, he retired temporarily from politics. In 1986, he reconquested 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 — a much maligned decision, since this park loses money and is often described as a white elephant.

He hoped to return in power as Prime minister during the first "cohabitation" (1986 - 1988) or after the reelection of Mitterrand with the theme of "France united", in vain. President of the UDF (1988 - 1996), he faced with the rise of a new generation of politicians called the "renovationmen". The most part of the UDF politicians supporting the candidacy of the RPR Prime minister Edouard Balladur at the 1995 presidential election, he could not be candidate and finally, called to vote for his former rival, Chirac.

In 2000, he did a parliamentary proposition in order to reduced the presidential term from 7 to 5 years. President Chirac organized a referendum on this issue, and the "yes" won. He was not candidate for a new parliamentary term in 2002. His son, Louis Giscard d'Estaing was elected in his constituency.

Following his defeat in the regional elections of March 2004, he decided to leave partisan politics and to take his seat in the Constitutional Council as a former president of the Republic. Some of his actions there, such as the one to campaign in favor of the Treaty establishing the European Constitution, were criticized as unbecoming to a member of this council, which should embody nonpartisanship and should not appear to favor 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 French Senate.

In 2003, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was admitted to the Académie française, amid controversy; critics pointed out that Giscard had written only a single novel, Le Passage, of dubious quality.

He is currently serving as:

• President of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions
• A member of the Académie française (French Academy)
• As a de jure member of the French Constitutional Council

European activities

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing has, throughout his political career, always been a proponent of greater European integration. In 1978, he was for this reason the obvious target of Jacques Chirac's Call of Cochin, denouncing the "party of the foreigners".

From 2002 - 2003 he served as President of the Convention on the Future of Europe.

On 29 October, 2004, the European heads of state, gathered in Rome, approved and signed the European Constitution based on a draft strongly influenced by Giscard's work at the Convention.

Although the Constitution was rejected by French voters in May 2005, Giscard continues to actively lobby for its passage in other European Union states. Speaking at the London School of Economics on February 28, 2006, he said that "The rejection of the Constitutional treaty by voters in France was a mistake that should be corrected."

Giscard opposes Turkey joining the European Union, saying to French Newspaper Le Monde, "In my opinion, it would be the end of Europe."

Personal

His name is often shortened to "Giscard" or even "VGE" by the French media. A less flattering nickname is l'Ex (the Ex), as he is, as of 2006, the only surviving former president of France and he is generally considered to be bitter about his failure to be re-elected. He has been the only surviving ex-president since he left office, with the exception of a brief period between Francois Mitterrand's retirement in 1995 and death in early 1996.

On 17 December, 1952, Giscard married Anne-Aymone Sauvage de Brantes, a daughter of Count François Sauvage de Brantes, who died in a concentration camp in 1944, and his wife, the former Princess Aymone de Faucigny-Lucinge. They have four children: Valérie-Anne, Henri, Louis and Jacinte. His son Louis is a French conservative Representative, his son Henri is the President of the tourism company Club Méditerranée.

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

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

He travels the world giving speeches on European integration.

External links

• Curriculum Vitae (CEMR website)
• Bio on the French National Assembly website (in French)
• First and second round results of the French presidential electios of 1974 (in French)
• Call to the nation of former president Giscard, shortly after being defeated at the second turn of '81 presidential election (document from national TV archives in French)