PARIS: Tributes poured in Thursday after the death of former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing from Covid-19 aged 94, with French and European leaders hailing him as an ambitious reformer and great statesman.
Giscard, who had been in hospital several times in the last months for heart problems, died surrounded by his family on Wednesday at the family estate, the family said in a statement. He governed for a single seven-year term from 1974-1981, when France made great strides in nuclear power and high-speed train travel and legalised abortion.
He ensured that Paris was at the heart of Europe in a post-war partnership with Germany and also played a key role in what would become the G7 group of major world powers.
In contrast to his predecessors Georges Pompidou and Charles de Gaulle, he was an accessible and media-savvy politician who enjoyed meeting voters. But he also never shook off a sometimes haughty demeanour linked to his aristocratic background.
His ambition to go down as one of France's greatest leaders was derailed in 1981 when he lost his bid for a second term to Socialist rival Francois Mitterrand.
"His seven-year mandate transformed France," President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement.
"The direction he set for France still guides our way... his death has plunged the French nation into mourning," Macron, who has sometimes been compared to Giscard, said.
Macron will address the nation to pay tribute to Giscard at 1900 GMT, the Elysee said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel mourned the loss of a "great European" and said Germany had lost "a friend."
Tweeting in French and English, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called Giscard a "hugely important figure in modernising France". Former European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker recalled Giscard's "great ambition for the continent".
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