Valéry Giscard d’Estaing

Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, born in 1926, president of France from 1974 to 1981, who continued the conservative policies established by his two predecessors of the Fifth Republic.

Giscard was born in Koblenz, Germany and educated at the École Polytechnique and École Nationale d'Administration. He began his career in 1952 in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, where he served as assistant director of the minister's staff. Elected to the National Assembly in 1956 and reelected in 1958, Giscard was appointed secretary of state for finance under Charles de Gaulle in 1959; three years later he became minister of finance. His economic program lowered the rate of inflation but caused a brief recession; he was dismissed in 1966. Shortly thereafter he was returned to the National Assembly. In 1969 Giscard joined the government of President Georges Pompidou as minister of finance and economic affairs, imposing strict economic controls. After Pompidou died in April 1974, Giscard was narrowly elected president of France as an Independent Republican. He was inaugurated on May 27, 1974.

Giscard was a proponent of closer economic and political ties among European nations and soon established personal contacts with other world leaders. He also made a strong effort to revitalize France's recession-bound economy; in 1976 he outlined a wide-ranging program of reforms. He could not, however, halt the economic deterioration and social unrest caused by a worldwide recession. His reputation was damaged by allegations in 1979 that he had accepted diamonds as a gift from the dictator of the Central African Republic, Jean-Bédel Bokassa, who was later overthrown with the aid of French forces because of atrocities that included a massacre of schoolchildren. Giscard was defeated in the 1981 election. He remained active in politics and in 1988 was elected president of the Union for French Democracy, a coalition party founded in 1978.