PARIS – No one who saw it will forget Valery Giscard d’Estaing’s imperious exit from the Elysee Palace. Seated alone at his desk, he offered a stiff televised farewell to the French who had voted him out of office, then stood and left the room.
For 45 seconds, the camera kept rolling on an empty chair.Eventually, the former French president refashioned himself as elder statesman for a united Europe, a veteran of World War II who befriended German chancellors and helped lay the groundwork for the shared euro currency.
Tributes poured in from France and around Europe on Thursday after he died Wednesday of complications from COVID-19 at age 94.“France has lost a statesman, Germany a friend and all of us a great European,” German Chancellor.