Valéry Giscard d’Estaing

Valéry Giscard d’Estaing (born February 2, 1926 in Koblenz, Germany) is a French politician who was President of the Republic from 1974 until 1981.Valéry Giscard d’Estaing President of France

He is a son of Edmond Giscard d’Estaing (1892-1982), a French civil servant, and his wife, May Bardoux, who was a daughter of French senator and academicien Jacques Bardoux and a great-granddaughter of French minister of state education Agénor Bardoux.

He graduated from the École Polytechnique and the École nationale d’administration.

Giscard was defeated in the presidential elections of 1981. From 1986 until 2004 he was the president of the regional council of Auvergne. He is one of the fiercest proponents of the United States of Europe.

Following from his defeat in the regional elections of March 2004, he decided to leave partisan politics and to take his seat in the Constitutional Council as a former president of the Republic.

He is currently serving as:

• President of the Convention on the Future of Europe
• President of the CEMR (Council of European Municipalities and Regions)
• A member of the Académie française
• As a de jure member of the French Constitutional Council
• His name is often shortened to “Giscard” or even “VGE” by the French media. A less flattering nickname is l’Ex (the Ex), as he is, as of 2004, the only surviving former president of France.

In 1952, Giscard married Anne-Aymone Sauvage de Brantes, a daughter of the Marquis de Brantes and his wife, Princess Aymone de Faucigny-Lucinge. They have four children: Valerie-Anne, Henri, Louis and Jacinte.

He is an uncle of French artist Aurore Giscard d’Estaing, who is married to the American actor Timothy Hutton.