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Valéry Marie René Georges Giscard d'Estaing, also known as Giscard or VGE, is a French centrist politician who served as President of the French Republic from 1974 until 1981 and who is now a member of the Constitutional Council of France.

His tenure as President was marked by a more liberal attitude on social issues – such as divorce, contraception, and abortion – and attempts to modernize the country and the office of the presidency, notably launching such far-reaching infrastructure projects as the high-speed TGV train and the turn towards reliance on nuclear power as France's main energy source.

As a former President, he is a member of the Constitutional Council. He became involved in the regional politics of Auvergne, serving as president of that region from 1986 to 2004. Involved with the European Union, he notably presided over the Convention on the Future of Europe that drafted the ill-fated Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe.

In 2003, he was elected to the French Academy, taking the seat that his friend and former President of Senegal Léopold Sédar Senghor had held.


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