Former French President Giscard d'Estaing dies of COVID-19 complications at 94

FILE PHOTO: Former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing speaks during an interview with Reuters in his office in Paris, France, February 11, 2016. Picture taken February 11, 2016. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

PARIS (Reuters) -Former President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, who championed European integration and helped modernise French society in the 1970s, has died at the age of 94 after contracting COVID-19.

Giscard's foundation said he passed away in his family home in the Loir-et-Cher region of central France. He had been admitted to hospital in September with respiratory complications, and was hospitalised again in mid-November.