He helped liberalise the economy and oversaw the launch of projects like France’s high-speed TGV train network. He was also seen as more modern in deportment than his predecessors, a relaxed, charismatic figure dubbed ‘VGE’. He once hosted a breakfast at the Elysée Palace for garbage collectors and was known to attend dinners at the homes of French citizens. It was during his time that the “Group of Seven” including seven industrialized and rich countries of the world was formed, and together with Helmut Schmidt, the chancellor of Germany, the Franco-German axis was also strengthened. However, Giscard Destin’s presidency was not an easy one. He experienced his first crisis in this period with the resignation of Jacques Chirac from the position of Prime Minister.
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.
