Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, 20ème Président de la République française

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BIOGRAPHY Son of Edmond Giscard d'Estaing and Marthe Bardoux, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was born 2 February 1926 in Koblenz, Germany. Eldest son of a French patrician family, he attended the Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecole Nationale d'Administration in Paris. During the Second World War he worked for the Resistance and participated with the French army in liberation of Alsace and conquest of the Palatinate in Germany. When war was over, he worked in the Finance Ministry.

At Authon, Loir et Cher, 17 December 1952, he married Anne Aymone Sauvage de Brantes and they became the parents of four children, two sons and two daughters.

Elected to the French National Assembly in 1956 he became a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly (1956-1958). Then he served as the Secretary of State for Finance (1959-1962) until President de Gaulle appointed him Finance Minister (1962-1966).

During his first term as Finance Minister, France had a balanced budget for the first time in thirty years. He attempted to limit the American financial influence in France but other conservative financial measures helped cause a recession which discredited him in the business and labour sectors of France and he was dismissed.

He then founded and was first President of the 'Republicains Indépendants', a conservative party which worked in coalition with the Gaullist party. Under President Georges Pompidou, from 1969 till 1974, he was again Finance Minister. In the elections for the Presidency of France, on 19 May 1974, his main opponent was François Mitterrand who lost.

One of the achievements of his presidency was the strengthening of the European Economic Community. But, on 10 May 1981, Giscard d'Estaing was defeated by François Mitterrand and, in 1982, returned to politics as 'conseiller général' of Chamaliéres.

Many years later a story was told that Sir Harold Wilson, the British Labour prime minister, visited Queen Elizabeth II for one of his weekly audiences, and asked the Queen: 'Have you seen the latest editions of the 'Evening Standard' today, Ma'am?' The evening papers were full of a story about President Giscard d'Estaing driving all over France with some ladies of doubtful virtue in his car. Sir Harold told the Queen about this as she always loved stories about the French: 'Ho-ho, Mr. Wilson!' she said with relish.

However, Mr. Wilson, as Prime Ministers are required, had to ask the Queen permission to visit France. The Queen was amused and asked whether he was 'thinking he'd be taking Giscard's car all over Paris.' Wilson went to France and had a private dinner with Giscard d'Estaing, then reported to the Foreign Office officials travelling with him that he did not feel too well, and had an early night.

When Wilson returned to England and on his first visit to the Queen he was asked: 'Well, how did it go?' Wilson replied in detail but then the Queen leant forward and, with a solemn look, inquired: 'Ho-ho, Mr. Wilson?' Wilson answered with a saintly expression: 'Ma'am, there was no ho-ho; everyone went to bed early.'

From 1986 until 2004 he was the president of the regional council of Auvergne, trying to encourage tourism to the region. In 2003, Vélery Giscard d'Estang was admitted to the Académie française, amid controversy; critics pointed out that Giscard had written only a single novel, _Le Passage,_ of dubious quality. In the same year he received the Charlemagne Award of the German city of Aachen. 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.