If Valéry Giscard d'Estaing did not lack a meaning, it was indeed that of the formula.
The former head of state, who died Wednesday evening at the age of 94 in his property in Loir-et-Cher as a result of a Covid-19 infection, has made a lasting impression on several occasions with statements made to posterity, and for some, despite their author.
"You do not have, Monsieur Mitterrand, a monopoly of the heart"
On May 10, 1974, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and François Mitterrand clash during a debate that has remained in the annals.
Presidential finalists, they bring down their last cards.
But it is VGE which takes the hand, thanks in particular to this famous sentence addressed to his adversary: "You do not have, Mr. Mitterrand, the monopoly of the heart".
And it doesn't stop there.
"You are the man of the past", also launches Valéry Giscard d'Estaing to the man who already has three decades of political career behind him.
François Mitterrand himself judges his performance catastrophic.
After the duel, he plunged 1.5 points in the polls and, a few days later, he lost the election.
" Yes, but "
In 1967, he distanced himself from Gaullist power, and launched the FNRI, the National Federation of Independent Republicans.
He defined his position in the Gaullist majority by the formula "yes, but", which would have the gift of annoying de Gaulle, who replied the next day, assuring: "We do not govern with buts".
" Goodbye "
He has become inseparable from Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.
The “goodbye”, released at the end of his speech on May 9, 1981, nevertheless enjoyed a celebrity that its author did not imagine.
Defeated in the presidential election, VGE then wanted to send a “departure” message to the French.
He concludes it with a sinister "goodbye", before getting up and leaving the studio live in front of the camera filming his empty chair.
“At the end of my text, I wanted to say that I was leaving.
Which consisted of getting up from my seat and leaving, he had explained on Europe 1. I just hadn't seen that the office was so far from the door.
I thought it was three meters away.
In fact, it was seven or eight meters away.
[…] I had to make a long journey which, since then, has unfortunately become a bit famous, ”the former president told France Info in 2015.
VIDEO. Death of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing: 5 moments that marked his political life
"At my age, immortality has become a safe haven"
In 2004 again, he proved his sense of the formula when he entered the Académie Française.
Received by the Wise Men at 78, he quipped about his age and declared: “At my age, immortality has become a safe haven.
"
Immigration, an "invasion"
On September 21, 1991, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, in an article published by the Figaro Magazine, evokes a risk of “invasion” in connection with immigration.
"The type of problem we will have to face is moving from that of immigration to that of invasion," he declares, and recommends "returning to the traditional conception of the acquisition of French nationality. : that of blood rights ”.
The controversy is immediate.
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Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, a revolution in political communication
Invited, in the wake of the famous 7/7 show on TF1, VGE will then attempt a text explanation.
The former President of the Republic assures us that he had "not made this article to carry out a political operation", but because the direction of the weekly had asked him to "comment on a poll" and that he had " used a descriptive and strong word to show that it was about a new problem, reports Le Monde, in an article of the time.
"But it's not at all the invasions of yesteryear, like Attila," he adds.
“It is not at all to go in the direction of the greatest slope but in the direction of the awareness of the problems.
I think that rather than closing our eyes, we have to open them, reflect, be able to take concrete, firm and fair solutions ”.