The former president was regarded as a pioneering social reformer. Elected when he was 48, Giscard is credited with making strides in modernising French society, instituting policy changes such as allowing divorce by mutual consent, legalising abortion and lowering the voting age to 18. However, the election of Valéry Giscard was the wind of freedom blowing in the country, and the lowering of the voting age to 18 and the abolition of the penalty for abortion are symbols of the freedoms of his era. Also, Giscard Daz’s different behavior in a country whose presidents had conservative behavior before is one of the other characteristics of his presidency.
