Former French President Valéry Giscard d’Esta has died …

The former president of France between 1974 and 1981, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, died this Wednesday at the age of 94. After being hospitalized several times for heart problems, he died infected with coronavirus. The French politician is credited with putting an end to the conservatism that dominated the country after World War II.

According to information provided by his relatives, the youngest president of the Fifth Republic he spent his last hours at home in Authon. “His health had deteriorated and he died of covid 19,” his family said in a statement.

In recent months, Giscard d’Estaing suffered various health complications that required hospitalization. Between November 15 and 20, he was treated in the cardiology department of the Tours hospital. In turn, in mid-September, he was hospitalized at the Georges-Pompidou medical center in Paris for a benign lung infection. Doctors ruled out at the time that it was a coronavirus.

One of the last public appearances he made was on September 30, 2019, at the funeral in Paris of another former president, Jacques Chirac, who was its prime minister from 1974 to 1976.

The first French head of state not to come out of “Gaullism” after World War II is recognized for having led a modernization of French society. During his tenure, a series of sweeping reforms were promoted such as legalizing abortion, allowing divorce by mutual consent and reducing the voting age to 18. It was also at his initiative that the leaders of the richest countries in the world first met in 1975, an event that became the G7 summit.