Giscard d'Estaing, Valery 
1926 - .
French conservative politician, 
president 1974-81. 

He was finance minister to de Gaulle 1962-66 and Pompidou 1969-74. As leader of the Union pour la Democratie Francaise, which he formed in 1978, Giscard sought to project himself as leader of a "new centre". Giscard was active in the wartime Resistance. After a distinguished academic career, he worked in the Ministry of Finance and entered the National Assembly for Puy de Dome in 1956 as an Independent Republican. After Pompidou's death he was narrowly elected president in 1974, in difficult economic circumstances; he was defeated by the socialist Mitterrand in 1981. He returned to the National Assembly in 1984. In 1989 he resigned from the National Assembly to play a leading role in the European Parliament.