PARIS: Former French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing has died at the age of 94 after contracting COVID-19.
Giscard was France’s leader from 1974 to 1981 and a key architect of European integration in the early 1970s. He had recently been hospitalised in Tours in western France.
He died at his family home nearby after suffering from complications linked to the virus, a foundation he had set up and chaired said in a statement. He had been admitted to hospital in September with respiratory complications and was hospitalised again in mid-November.
Giscard was known for steering a modernisation of French society during his presidency, including allowing divorce by mutual consent and legalising abortion, and was one of the architect of European integration.
Elected president at 48, he came to power after Charles de Gaulle’s long rule, seeking to liberalise the economy and social attitudes and credited with launching major projects including France’s high-speed TGV train network. He lost his re-election bid to Socialist Francois Mitterrand, in the aftermath of the global economic downturn of the 1970s.
Tributes poured in across the political spectrum in France. Former President Nicolas Sarkozy said Giscard had “worked his whole life to reinforce relations between European nations.”
In Europe, he forged a close relationship with former West German chancellor Helmut Schmidt and together they laid the foundations for the euro single currency, setting up the European Monetary System.
French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to his predecessor, saying Giscard’s seven-year term had “transformed France”. “His death has plunged the French nation into mourning”, Macron said, describing Giscard as “a servant of the state, a politician of progress and freedom”.
Giscard made one of his last public appearances on September 30 last year for the funeral of another former president, Jacques Chirac, who had been his prime minister.
