Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (born February 2, 1926 in Koblenz, Germany) is a French politician who was President of the Republic from 1974 until 1981.
Giscard was defeated in the presidential elections of 1981. From 1986 until 2004 he was the president of the regional council of Auvergne. He is one of the fiercest proponents of the United States of Europe.
Giscard is the son of Edmond Giscard d'Estaing (1892-1982), a French civil servant, and his wife, May Bardoux, who was a daughter of French senator and academicien Jacques Bardoux and a great-granddaughter of French minister of state education Agénor Bardoux.
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).
Elected in Parliament, as an "independant" (i.e. conservative) in 1951, he was secretary of state for Finances from 1959 to 1962, then minister of Finances and Economic Affairs from 1962 to 1966 under prime minister Georges Pompidou, then minister of Economy and Finances under prime ministers Pierre Messmer and Jacques Chaban-Delmas from 1969 to 1974.
Head of pro-gaullist conservatives from 1962 to 1974, he created in 1978 the UDF (Union for French Democracy) in which christian-democrats and conservatives merged.
Following from 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. From 2002-2003 he served as President of the Convention on the Future of Europe.
He is currently serving as:
- President of the CEMR (Council of European Municipalities and Regions)
- A member of the Académie française
- As a de jure member of the French Constitutional Council
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 2004, the only surviving former president of France.
On December 17, 1952, Giscard married Anne-Aymone Sauvage de Brantes, a daughter of the Marquis de Brantes and his wife, Princess Aymone de Faucigny-Lucinge. They have four children: Valerie-Anne, Henri, Louis and Jacinte.
On 29 October, 2004, the European heads of state, approuved and signed the European Constitution based on a draft realised the previous year by Giscard in the symbolic seat of Rome with the presence of Giscard itself.
He is an uncle of French artist Aurore Giscard d'Estaing, who is married to the American actor Timothy Hutton.
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