Valéry Giscard d'Estaing

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing fought in the Liberation of Paris and the First Army in 1944-1945, then studied at the École Polytechnique and the École Nationale d'Administration. He entered the National Assembly in 1956 and was finance minister under de Gaulle and Pompidou. In 1969 he opposed de Gaulle's referendum, contributing to the general's resignation. Elected president in 1974 at 48, narrowly defeating François Mitterrand, he lost to Mitterrand in 1981 with 48.2 percent. He later led the Auvergne region, sat in the European Parliament, chaired the European Convention and was elected to the Académie française in 2003. He died in 2020.

Admirers see Giscard as a modernizer who brought a more socially liberal style to the presidency after de Gaulle and Pompidou, and as a founder of European monetary cooperation that led to the euro. Critics regarded him as aloof and grand, and the second oil shock of 1979 brought high inflation and the end of postwar growth. He loosened government control over state radio and television and backed the Helsinki agreement, but also oversaw French military interventions in Chad, Zaire and Mauritania. He kept the death penalty, and his acceptance of diamonds from the Central African ruler Jean-Bédel Bokassa, revealed by Le Canard enchaîné in 1979, damaged his re-election campaign. The EU constitution he helped draft as president of the European Convention was rejected by French voters in a 2005 referendum.