He is the second President of the Republic to die since the start of 2019. The Elysee Palace confirmed this Wednesday evening the death, at 94, of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.
He had accumulated serious health problems in recent months and died with his relatives on his property in Authon in Loir-et-Cher.
President of France between 1974 and 1981, VGE had, in mid-November, been admitted for a few days in the cardiology department of the hospital because of heart failure.
At the end of the summer, it was an infection in the lungs that had forced him to be taken care of in the Parisian hospital Georges-Pompidou.
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VGE, a misunderstood president
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing made an impression by winning the 1974 election. He then became the youngest president (at the time), at just 48 years old, as well as the first non-Gaullist, to take over of the Élysée, beating on the wire François Mitterrand, in a France which buries the Trente Glorieuses and digests May-68.
Before embarking on a life punctuated by politics and his deep interest in Europe.
1. In 1973, a remarkable duet between the minister candidate for the presidential election and the accordionist Yvette Horner
DANIEL JANIN / AFP
2. Then Minister of the Economy and Finance, in 1973 the candidate played football during the presidential campaign
STF / AFP
3. A greeting addressed to a jubilant crowd, after his victory, on May 20, 1974, from the balcony of his headquarters
AFP
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4. August 1974, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing bronze in a swimsuit during his vacation in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat
RALPH GATTI / AFP
5. VGE welcoming the Secretary General of the USSR Leonid Brezhnev in Orly in 1977
AFP
6. The candidate François Mitterrand faces President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing during the televised debate of May 5, 1981
AFP
7. Transfer of power with François Mitterrand on May 21, 1981 in the Elysée courtyard
STF / AFP
8. Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, parading with the riders of the Tour de France, July 25, 1986
AFP
9. Then president of the Convention on the future of Europe, VGE is greeted by young sympathizers, in 2003 during the European festival of the youth of the UMP
DERRICK CEYRAC / AFP
10. In 2005, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing bought the Château d'Estaing
Georges GOBET / AFP
11. The Giscard d'Estaing couple pictured after voting for the second round of the 2007 presidential election
THIERRY ZOCCOLAN / AFP
12. Meeting in 2008 with former Pope Benedict XVI
OLIVIER LABAN-MATTEI / AFP
13. VGE congratulating former Minister Simone Veil, who has just joined the prestigious Académie française in 2010
PHILIPPE WOJAZER / AFP
14. VGE, Sarkozy and Hollande at the funeral of former President Jacques Chirac, in September 2019
Francois Mori / AFP
15. Former Presidents Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and Nicolas Sarkozy attend the Constitutional Council in October 2018
Thomas SAMSON / AFP