Valéry Giscard d'Estaing

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing

Valéry René Marie Georges Giscard d'Estaing (UK: , US: , French: [valeʁi ʁəne maʁi ʒɔʁʒ ʒiskaʁ dɛstɛ̃] (listen); 2 February 1926 – 2 December 2020), also known as Giscard or VGE, was a French politician who served as President of France from 1974 to 1981.After serving as Minister of Finance under prime ministers Jacques Chaban-Delmas and Pierre Messmer, Giscard d'Estaing won the presidential election of 1974 with 50.8% of the vote against François Mitterrand of the Socialist Party. His tenure was marked by a more liberal attitude on social issues—such as divorce, contraception and abortion—and attempts to modernise the country and the office of the presidency, notably overseeing such far-reaching infrastructure projects as the TGV and the turn towards reliance on nuclear power as France's main energy source. Giscard d'Estaing launched the Grande Arche, Musée d'Orsay, Arab World Institute and Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie projects in the Paris region, later included in the Grands Projets of François Mitterrand. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing has received more than 1,776,099 page views. His biography is available in 101 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 86 in 2019). Valéry Giscard d'Estaing is the 639th most popular politician (up from 766th in 2019), the 172nd most popular biography from Germany (up from 214th in 2019) and the 46th most popular Politician.

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing is most famous for being the President of France from 1974 to 1981. He was also the President of the European Commission from 1985 to 1995.