Giscard considers standing again for president after 20 years

Twenty years after his humiliating defeat by Franτois Mitterrand, the former centre right president, ValΘry Giscard d'Estaing, may stand again for France's highest office.

The French political class greeted the 75-year-old statesman's announcement with surprised amusement. Although a brilliant orator, with degrees from France's most prestigious grandes Θcoles, Mr Giscard has long been considered a political has-been.

In 1995 he even lost re-election to the office of mayor of Clermont-Ferrand. As head of the regional council in Auvergne and a National Assembly member, Mr Giscard's pet project has been a volcano theme park.

In an interview with France 3 television, Mr Giscard said, "the French want to have a choice" and that there should be "at least two candidates on the left" and "at least two from the centre and the right".

Since the socialist leader, Lionel Jospin, became Prime Minister in 1997, it has been assumed that the 2002 election would be a contest between him and the Gaullist President, Jacques Chirac. But until the September 11th attacks on the US brought the campaign to a halt, there was speculation that a "third man" might mount a serious challenge to the quarrelsome executive couple. The left-wing renegade and former interior minister, Jean-Pierre ChevΦnement, was considered most likely to f ill that role.

Meanwhile, Mr Chirac's two main opponents on the right, Franτois Bayrou and Alain Madelin, never mustered more than 5 or 6 per cent popularity ratings. Mr Bayrou heads the centre-right UDF, which was founded by Mr Giscard. Mr Madelin broke away from the UDF several years ago to establish his own party, DL. Mr Giscard blames both for decimating the non-Gaullist right. In an allusion to Mr Bayrou and Mr Madelin, he said, "at the moment, credibility does not exist yet".

Mr Giscard said he did not yet intend to stand for the presidency, "but I don't exclude it". He will decide by next February or March, he added. The former president apparently believes that financial scandals over cash for airline tickets, kickbacks from housing projects and school construction, may force Mr Chirac to abandon his candidacy. France's highest court will decide on October 5th whether Mr Chirac can be summoned by judges.

Mr Giscard bears a grudge against Mr Chirac for challenging him in the first round of the 1981 election, then giving him the weakest possible endorsement for the second round. In 1974, at the age of 48, Mr Giscard was the youngest ever president of France. Asked whether he was not now too old to be president again, Mr Giscard noted that he is younger than the Israeli Minister for Foreign Affairs and the same age as the Chinese Prime Minister.