AKIPRESS.COM - The former French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, a key architect of European integration in the early 1970s, has died at the age of 94 after contracting Covid-19.

Giscard, who served as France’s leader from 1974 to 1981, had recently been hospitalised in Tours with respiratory problems, and was released only to return to hospital in mid-November.

He died at his family home nearby after suffering from complications linked to the virus, according to a statement issued by the foundation he had set up and chaired.

“His state of health had worsened and he died as a consequence of Covid-19,” his family said in a statement to AFP.