The Atomium is a monument in Brussels, originally built for Expo '58, the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. Designed by André Waterkeyn, it stands 102 metres (335 ft) tall. It has nine steel spheres connected so that the whole forms the shape of a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times.

Tubes connect the spheres along the 12 edges of the cube and all eight vertices to the centre. They enclose escalators connecting the spheres containing exhibit halls and other public spaces. The top sphere provides a panoramic view of Brussels. Each sphere is 18 metres in diameter. Four spheres are currently (as of 2012) closed to visitors; others can be reached easily by escalators. The vertical vertex contains a lift which was very fast and advanced at the time of building (the speed is 5 m/s).^[1]

Renovation[link]

Renovation on the Atomium began in March 2004; it was closed to the public in October, and remained closed until February 18 2006. The renovations included replacing the faded aluminium sheets on the spheres with stainless steel. To help pay for renovations, the old aluminium was sold to the public as souvenirs. A triangular piece about 2 m long sold for €1,000,^{[citation needed]}

The renovation includes revamped exhibition spaces, a restaurant, and a dormitory for visiting schoolchildren called "Kids Sphere Hotel" which features suspended plastic sphere towers. A €2 commemorative coin depicting the sculpture was issued in March 2006 to celebrate the renovation.

Post renovation[link]

The Atomium is one of the most visited attractions in Brussels today. In 2008, the Atomium celebrated its 50th anniversary, with activities planned all year, including free admission for those turning 50 between April and October.^[2]

Location[link]

The Atomium is located at 50°53′41″N 4°20′28″E / 50.89472°N 4.34111°E / 50.89472; 4.34111, on Boulevard du Centenaire, beside the King Baudouin Stadium in Heysel Park. Just next to it are the Mini-Europe park and the Heysel/Heizel metro station.

Safety features[link]

A model of the Atomium at Minimundus showing the support columns containing external stairs.

Three of the four uppermost spheres lack vertical support and hence are not open to the public for safety reasons, although the sphere at the pinnacle is open to the public. The original design called for no supports; the structure was simply to rest on the spheres. Wind tunnel tests proved that the structure would have toppled in an 80 km/h wind (140 km/h winds have been recorded in Belgium). Support columns were added to achieve enough resistance against overturning.[1]

Worldwide copyright claims[link]

SABAM, Belgium's society for collecting copyrights, has claimed worldwide intellectual property rights on all reproductions of the image via the United States Artists Rights Society (ARS) .^[3] For example SABAM issued a demand that a United States website remove all images of them from its pages.^[4] The website responded by replacing all such images with a warning not to take photographs of the Atomium, and that Asbl Atomium will sue if you show them to anyone.^[4][5] Sabam confirmed that permission is required.^[4]

Ralf Ziegermann remarked^[6] on the complicated copyright instructions on Atomium's website specific to "private pictures".^[7] The organisers of Belgian heritage, Anno Expo (www.expo58.eu, planning the 50th anniversary celebrations of Expo '58), in the city of Mechelen announced a "cultural guerrilla strike" by asking people to send in their old photographs of the Atomium and requested 100 photoshoppers to paint over the balls.^[8][9] SABAM responded that they would make an exception for 2008 and that people could publish private photographs for one year only on condition they were for non-commercial purposes.^[8]

Anno Expo later announced they had censored part of their own report due to "complications" and referred to a meeting they had with SABAM.^[10] Mechelen's Mayor, Bart Somers, called the Atomium copyright rules absurd.^[11]

On February 23, 2009 Axel Addington, Web Content Manager for Atomium, e-mailed a clarification to the Glass Steel and Stone web site, which some years earlier redacted its photographs of the Atomium after being threatened. He stated, "The royalties are perceived (sic) by the descendants of Andre Waterkeyn, the engineer who conceived Atomium in 1955, and not by the A.S.B.L Atomium. So, you've probably been sued by the SABAM (Belgian Copyright Company) because of the Waterkeyn Family."

From the Atomium's website, the current copyright restrictions exempt private individuals under the following conditions,^[12]

There are some cases however where use of the image of the Atomium is not restricted by any rights. This is the case where photographs are taken by private individuals and shown on private websites for no commercial purpose (the current trend for photo albums), as long as these pictures are displayed at a low resolution (600 pixels maximum, resolution of 72dpi) to avoid abusive usage and downloads. However, the words "© www.atomium.be - SABAM 2010 - photographers name" must be included next to the image.

In popular culture[link]

The Atomium served as the tenth pit stop in The Amazing Race 19.

The Atomium can be seen in background of the 1968 music video for Pink Floyd's "Paint Box"

The Atomium is a placeable scenery object in the video game RollerCoaster Tycoon 2.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Atomium

• Atomium official site
• Atomium renovation and interior design by Conix Architects
• Atomium at Structurae
• Webcam Atomium
• Atomium: virtual visit
• Free Pictures Atomium
• Brussels Discovery
• Atomium's architecture

v t e Tallest buildings and structures in Belgium Skyscrapers South Tower  · Finance Tower  · Rogier Tower  · Madou Plaza Tower  · Astro Tower  · North Galaxy Towers  · World Trade Center  · Belgacom Towers  · KBC Tower Radio and TV towers VRT Zendstation Egem  · Sint-Pieters-Leeuw Tower  · Zendmast Ruiselede (destroyed)  · Wavre Transmitter  · Mechelen-Zuid Telecommunications and Water Tower Other Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp  · Church of Our Lady, Bruges  · Brussels Justice Palace  · Atomium  · Saint Martin's Cathedral, Ypres  · Saint Vincent Church  · St. Rumbold's Cathedral  · Brussels Town Hall  · Pont de Wandre

Stars of the Lid
Background information
Origin	Austin, Texas, United States
Genres	Drone Ambient Modern Classical Minimalist
Years active	1993–present
Labels	Kranky Sedimental Sub Rosa
Associated acts	The Dead Texan, Aix Em Klemm, A Winged Victory for the Sullen
Website	official site
Members
Adam Wiltzie Brian McBride
Past members
Kirk Laktas

Stars of the Lid is a duo specializing in drone-based ambient music. They list among their influences minimalist and electronic composers such as Arvo Pärt, Zbigniew Preisner, Gavin Bryars, and Henryk Górecki, as well as Talk Talk (both bands have tracks named "Taphead"), post-rock artists Labradford, and ambient innovator Brian Eno.^[1] Their songs are largely beatless soundscapes, composed of droning, effects-treated guitars along with piano, strings, and horns; volume swells and feedback fill the gap of rhythmic instruments, providing dynamic movement within the songs. Their sound has been described as "divine, classical drone without the tedious intrusion of drums or vocals".^[2]

Biography[link]

Formed in Austin, Texas, in 1993, SOTL is composed of two members — Brian McBride and Adam Wiltzie. McBride explained in an interview^[3] that the band's name refers to "your own personal cinema, located between your eye and eyelid", suggesting the colors and patterns one can see with closed eyes (either phosphenes or closed-eye hallucinations). Both have released solo material, the former under his own name and the latter under The Dead Texan alias. Their two most recent releases have been triple LPs released to generally positive reviews. Adam Wiltzie currently lives in Brussels, Belgium and Brian McBride in Los Angeles, USA.

Recent activity[link]

On April 7, 2007, Stars of the Lid released triple LP, double CD album Stars of the Lid and Their Refinement of the Decline.

In 2007 Stars of the Lid performed in England, Ireland, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and Holland.

Throughout their European tour, they were joined live by a string trio featuring Lucinda Chua of Felix on cello, Noura Sanatian on violin and Ela Baruch on viola.

Their tour of North America was from mid-April to May 2008. Their North American line-up included Julia Kent on cello.

A teaser for an upcoming Stars of the Lid feature film has since surfaced on the internet.^[4]

Discography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Stars of the Lid at Brainwashed (official website)
• Stars of the Lid at MySpace
• Stars of the Lid at Kranky Records (biography, discography)
• Stars of the Lid at Allmusic (biography, discography)
• Stars of the Lid at Epitonic Records (tracks, brief biography)
• Stars of the Lid at Piero Scaruffi (discography, link to 1998 interview)
• Stars of the Lid at Vimeo (teaser for an upcoming SOTL feature film)

Carl Michael von Hausswolff.

Carl Michael von Hausswolff (born 1956 in Linköping) is a composer, visual artist and curator based in Stockholm, Sweden. His main tools are recording devices (camera, tape deck, radar, sonar) used in an ongoing investigation of electricity, frequency, architectural space and paranormal electronic interference. Major exhibitions include Manifesta (1996), documenta X (1997), the Johannesburg Biennial (1997), Sound Art - Sound as Media at ICC in Tokyo (2000), the Venice Biennale (2001, 2003 and 2005) and Portikus, Frankfurt (2004). Hausswolff received a Prix Ars Electronica award for Digital Musics in 2002.

He is an expert in the work of Friedrich Jürgenson, electronic voice phenomena (EVP) a researcher who claimed to have detected voices of the dead hidden in radio static. Hausswolff's own sound works are pure, intuitive studies of electricity, frequency and tone. Collaborators include Erik Pauser, with whom he worked as Phauss (1981-1993), Leif Elggren and John Duncan (artist).

Hausswolff is co-monarch (with Elggren) of the Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland (KREV), all areas of no-man's land, territories between national boundaries on both land and sea, digital and mental spaces. This nation has its own national anthem, flag, coat of arms, currency, citizens and ministers.

Recent audio works include "The Wonderful World of Male Intuition" (Oral), "There Are No Crows Flying around the Hancock Building" (Lampo), "Rats" and "Maggots" (both on Laton), "Three Overpopulated Cities ..." (Sub Rosa), "A Lecture on Disturbances in Architecture" (Firework Editions) and "Ström" and "Leech" (both on Raster-Noton).

Other works include "Red Pool" (Cities on the Move, Bangkok, 1999), "Red Night" (SITE Santa Fe, 1999), "Red Code" (CCA Kitakyushu, 2001), "Red Empty" (Lampo/WhiteWalls, Chicago, 2003) and "Red Mersey" (Liverpool Biennial, 2004).

He is also the curator and producer of freq out.

Around the year 1986, he formed the Swedish independent label Radium 226.5.

External links[link]

• CMvonHausswolff - Official website
• A 2006 interview with CM Von Hausswolff by Thomas Bey William Bailey
• "At Venice Biennale, Artists Plant Flag for Their State (of Mind)" New York Times (June 9, 2007)

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
President of France Co-Prince of Andorra
In office 27 May 1974 – 21 May 1981
Prime Minister	Jacques Chirac Raymond Barre
Preceded by	Alain Poher (Acting)
Succeeded by	François Mitterrand
President of the Regional Council of Auvergne
In office 21 March 1986 – 2 April 2004
Preceded by	Maurice Pourchon
Succeeded by	Joel-Peter Kindness
Minister of Finance
In office 29 June 1969 – 27 May 1974
Prime Minister	Jacques Chaban-Delmas Pierre Messmer
Preceded by	François-Xavier Ortoli
Succeeded by	Jean-Pierre Fourcade
In office 19 January 1962 – 8 January 1966
Prime Minister	Michel Debré Georges Pompidou
Preceded by	Wilfrid Baumgartner
Succeeded by	Michel Debré
Personal details
Born	(1926-02-02) 2 February 1926 (age 86) Koblenz, Germany
Political party	National Centre of Independents and Peasants (Before 1962) Independent Republicans (1962–1977) Republican Party (1977–1995) Popular Party for French Democracy (1995–1997) Liberal Democracy (1997–1998) Union for French Democracy (1998–2007) Democratic Movement (2007–present)
Other political affiliations	Union for French Democracy (1978–1998)
Spouse(s)	Anne-Aymone Sauvage de Brantes (1952–present)
Alma mater	Polytechnic School National School of the Administration, Strasbourg
Signature

Valéry Marie René Georges Giscard d'Estaing (French pronunciation: [valeʁi maʁi ʁəne ʒɔʁʒ ʒiskaʁ dɛstɛ̃]; born 2 February 1926) is a French centre-right politician who was President of the French Republic from 1974 until 1981. As of 2010^[update], he is 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. However, his popularity suffered from the economic downturn that followed the 1973 energy crisis, marking the end of the "thirty glorious years" after World War II, combined with the official discourse that the "end of the tunnel was near".

Giscard faced political opposition from both sides of the spectrum: from the newly unified left of François Mitterrand, and from a rising Jacques Chirac, who resurrected Gaullism on a right-wing opposition line. All this, as well as bad public relations, caused his unpopularity to grow at the end of his term, and he failed to secure re-election in 1981, the last French president to do so until Nicolas Sarkozy in 2012.

He is a proponent of the United States of Europe and, having limited his involvement in national politics after his defeat, he became involved with the European Union. He notably presided over the Convention on the Future of the European Union that drafted the ill-fated Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. He took part, with a prominent role, in the annually held Bilderberg private conference.

He also became involved in the regional politics of Auvergne, serving as president of that region from 1986 to 2004. He was elected to the French Academy, taking the seat that his friend and former President of Senegal Léopold Sédar Senghor had held. As a former President, he is a member of the Constitutional Council.

Early years[link]

Valéry Marie René Giscard d'Estaing was born in Koblenz, Germany, during the French occupation of the Rhineland. He is the elder son of Jean Edmond Lucien Giscard d'Estaing (1894–1982), a civil servant, and his wife, Marthe Clémence Jacqueline Marie (May) Bardoux, who was a daughter of senator and academic Achille Octave Marie Jacques Bardoux and a great-granddaughter of minister of state education Agénor Bardoux, also a granddaughter of historian Georges Picot and niece of diplomat François Georges-Picot, and also a great-great-great-granddaughter of King Louis XV of France by one of his mistresses, Catherine Eléonore Bernard (1740–1769) through his great-grandfather Marthe Camille Bachasson, Count of Montalivet, and by whom Giscard d'Estaing was a multiple descendant of Charlemagne.

Giscard had an older sister, Sylvie (1924–2008). He has a younger brother, Olivier, as well as two younger sisters: Isabelle (born 1935) and Marie-Laure (born 1939). Despite the addition of "d'Estaing" to the family name by his grandfather, Giscard is not descended from the extinct noble family of Vice-Admiral d'Estaing, that name being adopted by his grandfather in 1922 by reason of a distant connection to another branch of that family,^[1] from which they were descended with two breaks in the male line from an illegitimate line of the Viscounts d'Estaing.

In 1948, he spent a year in Montreal where he worked as a teacher in Collège Stanislas.^[2]

He studied at Lycée Blaise-Pascal in Clermont-Ferrand, École Gerson and Lycées Janson-de-Sailly and Louis-le-Grand in Paris. He graduated from the École Polytechnique and the École nationale d'administration (1949–1951). He acceded to the Tax and Revenue Service, then joined the staff of Prime Minister Edgar Faure (1955–1956).

Member of National Assembly[link]

In 1956, he was elected to Parliament as a deputy for the Puy-de-Dôme département, in the domain of his maternal family. He joined the National Centre of Independents and Peasants (CNIP), a conservative grouping. After the proclamation of the Fifth Republic, the CNIP leader Antoine Pinay became Minister of Economy and Finance and chose him as Secretary of State for Finances from 1959 to 1962.

In government[link]

Giscard with U.S. President John F. Kennedy at the White House, in Washington, D.C., 1962.

In 1962, while Valéry Giscard d'Estaing had been nominated Minister of Economy and Finance, his party broke with the Gaullists and left the majority coalition. The CNIP reproached President Charles de Gaulle with his euro-scepticism. But Giscard refused to resign and founded the Independent Republicans (RI). It was the small partner of the Gaullists in the "presidential majority".

However, in 1966, he was dismissed from the cabinet. He changed the RI in a political party, the National Federation of the Independent Republicans (FNRI), and founded the Perspectives and Realities Clubs. He did not leave the majority but became more critical. In this, he criticised the "solitary practice of the power" and summarised his position towards De Gaulle's policy by a "yes, but...". Chairman of the National Assembly Committee on Finances, he harassed his successor in the cabinet.

For that reason the Gaullists refused to re-elect him in this function after the 1968 legislative election. In 1969, unlike most of FNRI’s elected officials, he advocated a "no" vote in the referendum about the regions and the Senate, while De Gaulle had announced his intention to resign if the "no" won. The Gaullists accused him of being largely responsible for De Gaulle's departure.

During the 1969 presidential campaign, he supported the winning candidate Georges Pompidou and returned to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. On the French political scene, he appeared as a young brilliant politician, and a preeminent expert in economic issues. He was representative of a new generation of politicians emerging from the senior civil service, whose profile was as "technocrats".

In 1974, after the sudden death of President Pompidou, he announced his candidacy for the presidency. His two main challengers were François Mitterrand for the left and Jacques Chaban-Delmas, a former Gaullist prime minister. Supported by his FNRI party, he obtained the rallying of the centrist Reforming Movement. Moreover, he benefited from the divisions in the Gaullist party. Jacques Chirac and other Gaullist personalities published the "Call of the 43" where they explained Giscard was the best candidate to prevent the election of Mitterrand. Giscard crushed Chaban-Delmas in the first round, and then on 20 May narrowly defeated Mitterrand in the second, receiving 50.7% of the vote.^[3]

Presidency[link]

In 1974, he was elected President of France at 48, the third youngest president in French history, after Louis Napoleon Bonaparte and Jean Casimir-Perier. He promised "change in continuity". He made clear his desire to introduce various reforms and modernise French society, which was an important part of his presidency. He for instance reduced from 21 to 18 the age of majority and pushed for the development of the TGV high speed train network and the Minitel, a precursor of the Internet.^[4] In 1975, he invited the heads of government from West Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States to a summit in Rambouillet, to form the Group of Six (now the G8, including Canada and Russia) major economic powers.

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing meeting with president of Germany Walter Scheel in 1975

He pursued a controversial course in foreign policy. In 1977, in the Opération Lamantin, he ordered fighter jets to deploy in Mauritania and go to war against the Polisario guerillas fighting against Mauritanian military occupation of Western Sahara. But not even overt military backing proved sufficient to rescue the French-installed Mauritanian leader Mokhtar Ould Daddah, as he was overthrown by his own army some time later, and a peace agreement was signed with the Sahrawi resistance.

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in 1979 with Helmut Schmidt, Jimmy Carter and James Callaghan at Guadeloupe.

Most controversial, however, was his involvement with the Bokassa regime of the Central African Republic and with a diamond smuggling scandal involving the dictator, by which he personally profited. Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was at first a friend of its ruler, Jean-Bédel Bokassa; he supplied Bokassa's regime with much financial and military backing. However, the growing unpopularity of that government led Giscard to begin distancing himself from Bokassa.

In 1979 French troops helped drive Bokassa out of power and restore former president David Dacko. This action was also controversial, particularly since Dacko was Bokassa’s cousin and had appointed Bokassa as head of the military, and unrest continued in the Central African Republic, leading to Dacko being overthrown in another coup in 1981.

In a related incident, Giscard was reported by the Canard Enchaîné to have accepted diamonds as personal gifts from Bokassa – who fled to France with looted millions from the Central African Republic's treasury, but was still given asylum in France. Legally, official gifts to the President are property of the Republic of France, not the President; Giscard supporters contended that the diamonds were industrial-grade and thus had no sizeable monetary value.

In home policy, the president’s reforms worried the conservative electorate and the Gaullist party. A rivalry appeared with his prime minister Jacques Chirac, who resigned in 1976. Raymond Barre, called the "best economist in France", succeeded him. He led a policy of strictness in a context of economic crisis (Plan Barre). Unemployment grew.

Unexpectedly, the right-wing coalition won the 1978 legislative election. Nevertheless, relations with Chirac, who had founded the Rally for the Republic (RPR), became more tense. VGE reacted by founding a centre-right confederation, the Union for French Democracy (UDF).

Giscard was defeated in the 1981 presidential election by Mitterrand. At the time, Chirac ran against Giscard in the first round of runoff voting and declined to call his voters to elect Giscard, though he declared that he himself would vote for Giscard. Since then, Giscard has always attributed his defeat to Chirac, and he is widely said to loathe Chirac. Certainly, on many occasions, Giscard has criticised Chirac's policies, despite supporting Chirac's governing coalition.

Although he said he had "deep aversion against capital punishment" and in his 1974 campaign proclaimed his opposition to the death penalty,^[5] he did not commute three of the death sentences that he had to decide upon during his presidency (although he did so in several other occasions), keeping France as the last country in the European Union to apply the death penalty. These executions would be the last ever in France.

After 1981 defeat[link]

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in 1986

After his defeat, he retired temporarily from politics. In 1984, he regained his seat in Parliament and won the presidency of the regional council of Auvergne. In this position, he tried to encourage tourism to the région, founding the "European Centre of Volcanology" and theme park Vulcania.

In 1982, along with his friend Gerald Ford, he co-founded the annual AEI World Forum.

He hoped to become prime minister of France during the first "cohabitation" (1986–88) or after the reelection of Mitterrand with the theme of "France united", but he was not chosen for this position. During the 1988 presidential campaign, he refused to choose publicly between the two right-wing candidates, his two former Prime Ministers Jacques Chirac and Raymond Barre. This attitude was interpreted as indicating that he wanted to regain the UDF leadership.

Indeed, he served as President of the UDF from 1988 to 1996, but he was faced with the rise of a new generation of politicians called the "renovationmen". Most of the UDF politicians supported the candidacy of the RPR Prime minister Édouard Balladur at the 1995 presidential election, but Giscard supported his old rival Jacques Chirac, who won the election. That same year Giscard suffered a humiliating defeat when he was defeated in a bid for the mayoralty of Clermont-Ferrand.

In 2000, he made a parliamentary proposal to reduce the length of a presidential term from 7 to 5 years. President Chirac held a referendum on this issue, and the "yes" side won. He did not run for a new parliamentary term in 2002. His son Louis Giscard d'Estaing was elected in his constituency.

Following his defeat in the regional elections of March 2004, he decided to leave partisan politics and to take his seat in the Constitutional Council as a former president of the Republic. Some of his actions there, such as his campaign in favour of the Treaty establishing the European Constitution, were criticised as unbecoming to a member of this council, which should embody nonpartisanship and should not appear to favour one political option over the other. Indeed, the question of the membership of former presidents in the Council was raised at this point, with some suggesting that it should be replaced by a life membership in the Senate.^[6][7]

In 2003, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing was admitted to the Académie française, amid controversy; critics pointed out that Giscard had written only a single novel, Le Passage, of dubious quality.

He has also served on the Trilateral Commission after being president, writing papers with Henry Kissinger.

He is currently serving as:

• President of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions
• A member of the Académie française (French Academy)
• As a de jure member of the French Constitutional Council

European activities[link]

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing has, throughout his political career, always been a proponent of greater European union. In 1978, he was for this reason the obvious target of Jacques Chirac's Call of Cochin, denouncing the "party of the foreigners".^{[citation needed]}

From 1989 to 1995, Giscard d'Estaing served as a member of the European Parliament. From 1989 to 1991, he was also chairman of the Liberal and Democratic Reformist Group.^[8]

From 2002 to 2003 he served as President of the Convention on the Future of Europe.^{[citation needed]}

On 29 October 2004, the European heads of state, gathered in Rome, approved and signed the European Constitution based on a draft strongly influenced by Giscard's work at the Convention.^{[citation needed]}

Although the Constitution was rejected by French voters in May 2005, Giscard continued to actively lobby for its passage in other European Union states. Speaking at the London School of Economics on 28 February 2006, he said: "The rejection of the Constitutional treaty by voters in France was a mistake that should be corrected."^{[citation needed]}

From 2008 he is the Honorary President of the Permanent Platform of Atomium Culture, an innovative structure composed of some of the most authoritative universities, newspapers and businesses in Europe for the selection, exchange and dissemination of the most innovative European research, to increase the movement of knowledge across borders, across sectors and to the public at large.^[9]

On 27 November 2009, d'Estaing publicly launched the Permanent Platform of Atomium Culture during its first conference, held at the European Parliament,^[10] declaring: "European intelligence could be at the very root of the identity of the European people."^[11] A few days before he had signed, together with the President of Atomium Culture Michelangelo Baracchi Bonvicini, the European Manifesto of Atomium Culture.^{[citation needed]}

Giscard and the Irish Lisbon Treaty referendum[link]

Giscard gained some notoriety in the June 2008 Irish vote on the Lisbon Treaty. One quote of his in particular, from an article he wrote for Le Monde^[12] and published in that newspaper on 15 June 2007, that "public opinion will be led to adopt, without knowing it, the proposals we dare not present to them directly", was consistently highlighted by "No" campaigners as evidence of an alleged insidious agenda to fool the European public into accepting the text. Although the quote is accurate, it was part of a critique, taken out of context, of a suggestion made by some unnamed persons. In the next paragraph Giscard goes on to reject the idea of this course of action by saying, "This approach of 'divide and ratify' is clearly unacceptable. Perhaps it is a good exercise in presentation. But it would confirm to European citizens the notion that European construction is a procedure organised behind their backs by lawyers and diplomats."

In the following paragraphs he goes on to appeal for an "honest treaty" and "total transparency" to allow citizens to hear the debate for themselves.

Political career[link]

President of the French Republic : 1974–1981.

Member of the Constitutional Council of France : Since 2004.

Governmental functions

Secretary of State for Finances : 1959–1962.

Minister of Finances and Economic Affairs : 1962–1966.

Minister of Economy and Finances : 1969–1974.

Minister of State, minister of Economy and Finances : March–May 1974 (Resignation, became President of the French Republic in 1974)

Electoral mandates

European Parliament

Member of European Parliament : 1989–1993 (Reelected member of the National Assembly of France in 1993).

National Assembly of France

Member of the National Assembly of France for Puy-de-Dôme : 1956–1959 (Became minister in 1959) / Reelected in 1962, but he stays minister / 1967–1969 (Became minister in 1969) / Reelected in 1973, but he stays minister / 1984–1989 (Became member of European Parliament in 1989) / 1993–2002. Elected in 1956, reelected in 1958, 1962, 1967, 1968, 1973.

Regional Council

President of the Regional Council of Auvergne (region) : 1986–2004. Reelected in 1992, 1998.

Regional councillor of Auvergne (region) : 1986–2004. Reelected in 1992, 1998.

General Council

General councillor of Puy-de-Dôme : 1958–1974 (Resignation, became President of the French Republic in 1974) / 1982–1988 (Resignation). Reelected in 1964, 1970, 1982.

Municipal Council

Mayor of Chamalières : 1967–1974 (Resignation, Became President of the French Republic in 1974). Reelected in 1971.

Municipal councillor of Chamalières : 1967–1977. Reelected in 1971.

Political functions

President of the National Federation of the Independent Republicans (Independent Republicans) : 1966–1974 (Became President of the French Republic in 1974).

President of the Union for French Democracy : 1988–1996.

Personal life[link]

His name is often shortened to "VGE" by the French media. A less flattering nickname is l'Ex (the Ex), used mostly by the weekly satirical newspaper Le Canard enchaîné. He was the only surviving ex-president since he left office until the end of Jacques Chirac's term on 16 May 2007, with the exception of a brief period between François Mitterrand's retirement in 1995 and death in early 1996.

On 17 December 1952, Giscard married his cousin Anne-Aymone Sauvage de Brantes, a daughter of Count François Sauvage de Brantes, who died in a concentration camp in 1944, and his wife, the former Princess Aymone de Faucigny-Lucinge. Their children are: Valérie-Anne, Henri (Edmond Marie Valéry), Louis (Joachim Marie François) and Jacinte (Marguerite Marie). Louis is a French conservative Representative; Henri is the President of the tourism company Club Méditerranée.

Giscard's private life was the source of many rumors at both national and international level. His family did not live in the presidential palace with him and his nocturnal escapades were reported by publications such as Le Monde, The Economist and the International Herald Tribune. In 1974, Le Monde reported that he used to leave a sealed letter stating his whereabouts in case of emergency.^[13]

In 2003 he received the Charlemagne Award of the German city of Aachen. He is also a Knight of Malta.

He is an uncle of artist Aurore Giscard d'Estaing, who was married to American actor Timothy Hutton.

He travels the world giving speeches on European union. During a visit to Ireland, d'Estaing was made an Honorary Patron of the University Philosophical Society, Trinity College, Dublin.

In 2005 he and his brother bought the castle of Estaing, a famous place in the French district of Aveyron and formerly a possession of the above mentioned admiral d'Estaing who was beheaded in 1794. The castle is not used as a residence but it has symbolic value. The two brothers explained that the purchase, supported by the local municipality, is an act of patronage. However, a number of major newspapers in several countries questioned their motives and some hinted at self-appointed nobility and a usurped historical identity.^[14]

Giscard wrote his second romantic novel, published on 1 October 2009 in France, entitled The Princess and The President. It tells the story of a French head of state having a romantic liaison with a character called Patricia, Princess of Cardiff. This fuelled rumours that the piece of fiction was based on a real-life liaison between Giscard and Diana, Princess of Wales.^[15] He later stressed that the story was entirely made up and no such affair had happened.^[16]

See also[link]

• French presidential election, 1974
• French presidential election, 1981

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Valéry Giscard d'Estaing

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Valéry Giscard d'Estaing

• (French) Personal blog of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
• (French) Biography on the French National Assembly website
• (French) First and second-round results of French presidential elections

v t e Republican heads of state of France Styled President of the Republic after 1871, except from 1940–44 (Chief of State) and 1944–47 (Chairman of the Provisional Government) First Republic (1792–1804) National Convention Directory Consulate Second Republic (1848–1852) Jacques-Charles Dupont de l'Eure Executive Commission Louis-Eugène Cavaignac Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte Government of National Defence (1870–1871) Louis Jules Trochu Third Republic (1871–1940) Adolphe Thiers Patrice de Mac-Mahon Jules Armand Dufaure Jules Grévy Maurice Rouvier Sadi Carnot Charles Dupuy Jean Casimir-Perier Charles Dupuy Félix Faure Charles Dupuy Émile Loubet Armand Fallières Raymond Poincaré Paul Deschanel Alexandre Millerand Alexandre Millerand Frédéric François-Marsal Gaston Doumergue Paul Doumer André Tardieu Albert Lebrun Vichy France (1940–1944) Philippe Pétain Provisional Government (1944–1947) Charles de Gaulle Félix Gouin Georges Bidault Vincent Auriol Léon Blum Fourth Republic (1947–1959) Vincent Auriol René Coty Fifth Republic (since 1959) Charles de Gaulle Alain Poher Georges Pompidou Alain Poher Valéry Giscard d'Estaing François Mitterrand Jacques Chirac Nicolas Sarkozy François Hollande Italics indicate interim officeholder

v t e Candidates in the French presidential election, 1974 Winner Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (RI) Lost in runoff François Mitterrand (PS) Other candidates Jacques Chaban-Delmas (UDR) René Dumont (environmentalist) Guy Héraud (European federalist) Alain Krivine (LCR) Arlette Laguiller (LO) Jean-Marie Le Pen (FN) Émile Muller (MSD) Bertrand Renouvin (NAR) Jean Royer (independent UDR) Jean-Claude Sebag (MFE)

v t e Presidents of the European Council President-in-Office (1975–2009) Liam Cosgrave · Aldo Moro · Gaston Thorn · Joop den Uyl · James Callaghan · Leo Tindemans · Anker Jørgensen · Helmut Schmidt · Valéry Giscard d'Estaing · Jack Lynch · Francesco Cossiga · Charles Haughey · Pierre Werner · Dries van Agt · Margaret Thatcher · Wilfried Martens · Anker Jørgensen · Poul Schlüter · Helmut Kohl · Andreas Papandreou · François Mitterrand · Garret FitzGerald · Bettino Craxi · Jacques Santer · Ruud Lubbers · Margaret Thatcher · Wilfried Martens · Poul Schlüter · Helmut Kohl · Andreas Papandreou · Felipe González · François Mitterrand · Charles Haughey · Giulio Andreotti · Jacques Santer · Ruud Lubbers · Poul Schlüter · Aníbal Cavaco Silva · John Major · Poul Nyrup Rasmussen · Jean-Luc Dehaene · Andreas Papandreou · Helmut Kohl · Jacques Chirac · Felipe González · Lamberto Dini · Romano Prodi · John Bruton · Wim Kok · Jean-Claude Juncker · Tony Blair · Viktor Klima · Gerhard Schröder · Paavo Lipponen · António Guterres · Jacques Chirac · Göran Persson · Guy Verhofstadt · José María Aznar López · Anders Fogh Rasmussen · Costas Simitis · Silvio Berlusconi · Bertie Ahern · Jan Peter Balkenende · Jean-Claude Juncker · Tony Blair · Wolfgang Schüssel · Matti Vanhanen · Angela Merkel · José Sócrates · Janez Janša · Nicolas Sarkozy · Mirek Topolánek · Jan Fischer · Fredrik Reinfeldt Permanent President (since 2009) Herman Van Rompuy

v t e Current members of the Constitutional Council of France President Jean-Louis Debré Members Valéry Giscard d'Estaing · Jacques Chirac · Nicolas Sarkozy · Pierre Steinmetz · Jacqueline de Guillenchmidt · Renaud Denoix de Saint Marc · Guy Canivet · Michel Charasse · Hubert Haenel · Jacques Barrot · Claire Bazy-Malaurie