Valéry Giscard d’Estaing
Valéry Marie René Georges Giscard d’Estaing (2 February 1926 – 2 December 2020) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1974 to 1981. He was the longest-lived French president in history. Giscards was not male line descendant from the extinct aristocratic family of Vice-Admiral d’ estaing.
About Valéry Giscard d’Estaing in brief
Valéry Marie René Georges Giscard d’Estaing (2 February 1926 – 2 December 2020) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1974 to 1981. His tenure was marked by a more liberal attitude on social issues and attempts to modernise the country and the presidency. He was the longest-lived French president in history. He died from complications attributed to COVID-19 at the age of 94 years and 304 days. He served as a member of the Académie française, taking the seat that his friend and former president of Senegal Léopold Sédar Senghor had held. He also served as the President of the Regional Council of Auvergne from 1986 to 2004. In 2003, he was elected to the French Academy of Sciences and Humanities, a position he held until his death in 2020. He is survived by his wife, Marthe Clémence Jacqueline Marie Bardoux, and two daughters, Isabelle and Marie-Laure. He had a son, Olivier, and a daughter, Sylvie, with whom he had three children. Giscards was not male line descendant from the extinct aristocratic family of Vice-Admiral d’ estaing. His ancestress was Lucie Madeleine d’ Estaing, Dame de Réquistat, who in turn was descendant of Joachim I d’ ESTaing, illegitimate son of Charles d’estaing and Knight of Saint John of Jerusalem. He joined the French Resistance and participated in the Liberation of Paris; during the liberation he was tasked with protecting Alexandre Parodi.
In 1948, he spent a year in Montreal as a teacher, where he worked at Collège Stanislas. In 1956, he joined the National Assembly as a deputy for the Puy-de-Dôme département. He then joined the Tax Service, then the Tax Inspection Service, before becoming a tax inspector. In 1958, he became a tax assessor. In 1959, he entered the French Army and served until the end of the war. In 1961, he served as Minister of Finance under prime ministers Jacques Chaban-Delmas and Pierre Messmer. In 1962, he won the French presidential election with 50. 8% of the vote against François Mitterrand of the Socialist Party. In 1981, despite a high approval rating, he was defeated in a runoff against MitterRand, with 48. 2% of the vote. As president, he promoted cooperation among the European nations, especially in tandem with West Germany. In 1986, he presided over the Convention on the Future of Europe that drafted the ill-fated Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. In 1988, he led the creation of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. In 1989, he took up the post of president of the Autorité de l’Administration de la Francophonie.
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