It was largely thanks to their efforts that the European Monetary System (EMS) was introduced, paving the way for today’s single currency, the euro. Michel Barnier, the French Politician currently serving as the EU’s Head of Task Force for Brexit negotiations with the UK, stated: ‘For Valery Giscard d’Estaing, Europe needed to be a French ambition and France a modern nation. Respect.’ In the last four decades of his life, even though he was busy in some relatively ceremonial government positions, he was mostly present in “memories,” and this caused a kind of depression in him. During the 14 years of Mitterrand’s presidency and almost all of Chirac’s presidency, Valéry Giscard D’Estaing was considered “the only living former president of France” and participated in television programs with the same title and made comments or expressed memories.
Giscard became last century’s youngest president at 48 in 1974, beating his Socialist rival Francois Mitterrand, to whom he then lost after his seven-year term in 1981 in a failed re-election bid. During the 14 years of Mitterrand’s presidency and almost all of Chirac’s presidency, Valéry Giscard D’Estaing was considered “the only living former president of France” and participated in television programs with the same title and made comments or expressed memories.
