Paris - President Jacques Chirac threw a lunch party for all France's surviving former prime ministers yesterday to celebrate the launch of the euro - but former president, Mr Valery Giscard d'Estaing, stayed away. He declined the invitation and pointedly released a "Dear Helmut" letter praising the work of the former German chancellor, Mr Helmut Schmidt, for Franco-German friendship.
Political sources said the former president who, with Mr Schmidt, was the father of the European monetary system, was infuriated by the Franco-German dispute over the head of the European Central Bank at last weekend's EU summit in Brussels.
