Claim profile

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing

French official and politician (1926–2020)

  • Fame74.4
  • Momentum22.9
  • France rank#174
Source-basedRising
  • Fame74.4
  • Momentum22.9
  • France rank#174
  • Wikipedia67.5K
Lived 1926–2020, aged 94France
FranceFrancePoliticiansPolitician
  • Wikipedia
    104 languages
    Cross-language footprint
  • Rank in France
    #174
    Politicians
  • Era
    1926–2020
    Aged 94
  • Known for
    Coluche
    2008
Summary
Updated 2026-09-07

He held France's presidency through seven oil-shocked years that ended three decades of postwar boom, liberalized divorce and abortion while unemployment climbed, and lost re-election despite high approval because the economy had turned and both left and right wanted him gone.

Biography

About

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing served as finance minister under two prime ministers before winning the presidency in 1974 with 50.8% against François Mitterrand. His tenure pushed social modernization—looser laws on divorce, contraception, abortion—and launched the TGV, the turn to nuclear energy, and cultural projects like the Musée d'Orsay and Grande Arche. The 1973 energy crisis ended the Trente Glorieuses, and he answered with austerity and rising joblessness to hold down deficits. Squeezed between a unified left under Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac's resurgent Gaullism on the right, he lost the…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Valéry Giscard d'Estaing

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
said
Undaunted, the Brussels establishment continued to pursue unification.
— Simon Jenkins, A Short History of Europe: From Pericles to Putin (2018)
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
said
Did it have to come to this? The paradox is that when Europe was less united, it was in many ways more independent.
— Perry Anderson, "Depicting Europe", London Review of Books (20 September 2007)
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
said
This text is, in fact, a rerun of a great part of the substance of the constitutional treaty.
— On the Lisbon Treaty, in his blog, 25 June 2007, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing: Conclusions du Conseil européen de Bruxelles, 21 et 22 juin
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
said
Public opinion will be led to adopt, without knowing it, the proposals we dare not present to them directly. (...) This approach of 'divide and ratify' is clearly unacceptable.
— On the Lisbon Treaty, Le Monde, 15 June 2007
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
saidundated
The rejection of the Constitutional treaty by voters in France was a mistake that should be corrected.
— Speaking at the London School of Economics, quoted on EurActiv.com, "Giscard: France’s rejection of the Constitution was a ‘mistake’",
via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA
Where to find them

Platforms

By the numbers

Score breakdown

The six component signals behind the Fame score, and their ranks across the leaderboards.

Fame
Rising
74.4
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
Score components
Momentum22.9
Historical26.4
Now attention28.4
Source confidence65.0
Completeness75.0
Global rank
—
Country rank
#174
Category rank
—
Receipts

Sources