Valérie Giscard d’Estaing asks for a funeral in the ‘strictest intimacy’

Credit: David BURNETT

Valérie Giscard d’Estaing, the former French president who died from coronavirus aged 94 on Wednesday, has asked for funeral ceremonies in the "strictest intimacy”, said his family on Thursday. 

The request came amid reports he felt too unloved by his compatriots for a national ceremony.

French and European leaders have hailed VGE, as the French called him, as an ambitious reformer and great statesman.

The former president, 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, rolling out France’s huge nuclear power programme and high-speed train travel.

He launched a radical reform drive that included legalising abortion, making it easier for couples to divorce, and lowering the voting age to 18.

In Europe, he helped the push towards a monetary union in cooperation with German chancellor Helmut Schmidt, launching a European exchange rate system that was a precursor to the euro.

Valery Giscard d'Estaing in 2005

Credit: Eyevine

However, the man who said he wanted to “look the French in the eyes” and gain their “love” never really got over his failure to secure a second term in 1981, when he was beaten by Socialist rival Francois Mitterrand.

His speech from the Elysée conceding defeat famously ended in a lugubrious “au revoir”. From then on, he was dubbed ‘the ex’. 

Later, he said his defeat left him with "frustration at a job unfinished”.

In 2001, he was selected by European leaders to lead work on the bloc’s constitutional treaty. But the French voters rejected the text in a 2005 referendum.

His family said that according to his wishes the funeral ceremonies would take place in the "strictest intimacy”. He had made it clear he wanted “no official ceremony, no state tribute”.

Part of the reason was borne from a sense that the French were not sufficiently appreciative of all that he had done for the country, according to French reports citing his entourage.

President Emmanuel Macron nevertheless hailed a former leader whose “seven-year mandate transformed France”.

"The direction he set for France still guides our way… his death has plunged the French nation into mourning," said Mr Macron, who has sometimes been compared to Giscard.