Giscard was an ambitious European statesman, among those at the forefront of moving the Continent towards a monetary union, along with his friend and contemporary, former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt. The oil shock during his tenure that slowed economic growth in France, media controversies that left him sidelined, and a further turn toward conservative and austerity policies that made him less popular meant that he was only president for one term.In the May 10, 1981, elections, Giscard d’Estaing lost to his rival, socialist Francois Mitterrand, with one million fewer votes. “I never imagined failure,” he later said.
