The French have somewhat forgotten Giscard.
True, he left power almost forty years ago.
After fifteen years of Gaullist reign, 6 years after May 1968, he was elected to the Élysée on a promise of reform and rejuvenation.
The French then dreamed of a blue white red Kennedy.
This gifted, passed through the best schools and the most prestigious courses (Polytechnic, Ena, Inspectorate of Finances), became president at 48, after a brilliant ministerial career with de Gaulle and Pompidou.
He wanted to make France an "advanced liberal society" and rule at the center-right by bringing together "two French out of three".
A journey and intuitions that have obvious analogies with a certain Emmanuel Macron.
Giscard wants to dust off the function.
He arrives on foot at the Élysée, re-orchestrates the Marseillaise, poses in a full jacket for his official photo.
He will be the architect of a modernization of the country with which he will never be credited.
He initiated many societal reforms such as the right to vote and coming of age at 18, divorce by mutual consent, abortion.
He also appoints the first Secretary of State for the Status of Women.
Another in the penitentiary condition.
His intuitions were good.
With the German Chancellor, Helmut Schmitt, he will make Europe take a decisive step by creating the European Monetary System, ancestor of the Euro.
Later, he will tackle the drafting of a European constitution which will be rejected by the French during the referendum in 2005. One more misunderstanding.
With regard to some of his successors, his record does not lack allure.
But his seven-year term was thwarted by two events that prevented his re-election.
The beginning of the crisis with the increase in unemployment;
he also dragged along like a bullet the miserable "diamond affair" offered by Bokassa.
She broke her relationship with the French, who only retained her somewhat antiquated aristocratic manners and her sometimes condescending attitude.
His theatrical departure on television with his famous "goodbye", leaving an empty chair, served him.
History has yet to do justice to this misunderstood president.