Editing Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (section)

===Domestic policy===
On taking office, Giscard was quick to initiate reforms; they included increasing the minimum wage as well as family allowances and old-age pensions.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gregg |first=Samuel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k9z0AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA87 |title=Becoming Europe: Economic Decline, Culture, and how America Can Avoid a European Future |date=2013 |publisher=Encounter Books |isbn=978-1-59403-637-8 |language=en}}</ref> He extended the right to political asylum, expanded health insurance to cover all Frenchmen, lowered the voting age to 18, and modernised the divorce law.  On 25 September 1974, Giscard summed up his goals: 
{{quote|To reform the judicial system, modernize social institutions, reduce excessive inequalities of income, develop education, liberalize repressive legislation, develop culture.<ref>Quoted in {{cite journal |mode=cs2 |author=Gordon Shenton|title=The Advancement of Women in Giscard d'Estaing's 'Advanced Liberal Society'|journal=The Massachusetts Review|year=1976|volume=17|issue=4|page=749 |jstor=25088694}}.</ref>}}

He pushed for the development of the [[TGV]] [[High-speed rail|high speed train]] network and the [[Minitel]] telephone upgrade, a precursor of the Internet.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.whitepages.fr/telecom-history-minitel.html |title=History of the Minitel |publisher=Whitepages.fr |access-date=20 November 2016}}</ref> He promoted [[Nuclear power in France|nuclear power]], as a way to assert French independence.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thelocal.fr/20201203/what-valery-giscard-destaing-meant-to-france|title=From TGVs to nuclear power: What Valéry Giscard d'Estaing meant to France|publisher=The Local|language=fr|access-date=3 December 2020|date=3 December 2020}}</ref>

Economically, Giscard's presidency saw a steady rise in personal incomes, with the purchasing power of workers going up by 29% and that of old age pensioners by 65%.<ref>{{cite book|author=D. L. Hanley |author2=Miss A P Kerr |author3=N. H. Waites |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cmuIAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA41 |title=Contemporary France: Politics and Society Since 1945 |via=Google Books |year=2005 | publisher=Routledge |access-date=20 November 2016|isbn = 978-1-134-97423-8}}</ref>

The great crisis that overwhelmed his term was a worldwide economic crisis based on rapidly rising oil prices. He turned to Prime Minister [[Raymond Barre]] in 1976, who advocated numerous complex, strict policies ("Barre Plans"). The first Barre plan emerged on 22 September 1976, with a priority to stop inflation. It included a 3-month price freeze; a reduction in the value added tax; wage controls; salary controls; a reduction of the growth in the money supply; and increases in the income tax, automobile taxes, luxury taxes and bank rates.  There were measures to restore the trade balance, and support the growth of the economy and employment. Oil imports, whose price had shot up, were limited. There was special aid to exports, and an action fund was set up to aid industries. There was increased financial aid to farmers, who were suffering from a drought, and for social security. The package was not very popular, but was pursued with vigor.<ref>J.R. Frears, ''France in the Giscard Presidency'' (1981) p. 135.</ref>

Giscard initially tried to project a less monarchical image than had been the case for past French presidents.<ref name=TTO/> He took a ride on the [[Paris Métro|Métro]], ate monthly dinners with ordinary Frenchmen, and even invited garbage men from Paris to have breakfast with him in the [[Élysée Palace]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://apnews.com/article/europe-paris-coronavirus-pandemic-france-angela-merkel-ab6d66d7891fd86cfef381bb3d998be4|title=Late French ex-president Giscard helped reshape Europe|work=[[Associated Press]]|date=3 December 2020}}</ref> However, when he learned that most Frenchmen were somewhat cool to this display of informality, Giscard became so aloof and distant that his opponents frequently attacked him as being too far removed from ordinary citizens.<ref>{{cite book|title=The World Today 2013: Western Europe|last=Thompson|first=Wayne C.|publisher=Stryker-Post Publications|location=Lanham, Maryland|date=2013|isbn=978-1-4758-0505-5}}</ref>{{page needed|date=December 2020}}

In domestic policy, Giscard's reforms worried the conservative electorate and the [[Gaullism|Gaullist]] party, especially the law by [[Simone Veil]] legalising abortion.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/30/world/europe/simone-veil-dead.html|title=Simone Viel, Ex-Minister Who Wrote France's Abortion Laws, Dies at 89|work=The New York Times|date=30 June 2017}}</ref> Although he said he had "deep aversion against capital punishment", Giscard claimed in his 1974 campaign that he would apply the death penalty to people committing the most heinous crimes.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=05ATAAAAIBAJ&pg=5404,5279889|title=Ocala Star-Banner – Google News Archive Search}}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> He did not commute three of the death sentences that he had to decide upon during his presidency. France under his administration was thus [[Capital punishment in France|the last country]] in the European Community to apply the death penalty, and until the [[Gary Gilmore|resumption of executions in the United States]] in 1977, the only one in the Western world. The [[Hamida Djandoubi|last death sentence]], bearing Giscard's signature, was executed in September 1977, the [[Philippe Maurice|last ratified]] by the [[Court of Cassation]] in March 1981, but rescinded by presidential pardon after Giscard's defeat in the presidential election in May.<ref name=BBCobit/><ref name=TGO/>

A rivalry arose with his Prime Minister Jacques Chirac, who resigned in 1976.<ref name=Chirac>{{cite news|url=https://www.france24.com/en/france/20201202-val%C3%A9ry-giscard-d-estaing-modernist-french-president-dies-at-94|title=Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, 'reformist' French president, dies at 94|date=2 December 2020|access-date=5 December 2020|publisher=[[France 24]]}}</ref> [[Raymond Barre]], called the "best economist in France" at the time, succeeded him.<ref name=BBCobit/>

Unexpectedly, the right-wing coalition won the [[1978 French legislative election|1978 legislative election]].<ref name=BBCobit/> Nevertheless, relations with Chirac, who had founded the [[Gaullist Party|Rally for the Republic]] (RPR), became more tense.<ref name=Chirac /> Giscard reacted by founding a centre-right confederation, the [[Union for French Democracy]] (UDF).<ref name=WPO/>