France of the 1970s: Social, Economic and Political Outcome of the Presidency of Valery Giscard d'Estaing

The article examines the period of the presidency of Giscard d'Estaing. Its beginning coincided with the end of the "Glorious Thirty" and the global energy crisis, which led to changes in French society, economy and politics. The most important reforms of the presidency, which took place under the sign of the creation of an "advanced liberal society", concerned the reduction of the age of electoral majority, the liberalization of morals and the legalization of abortion and contraception, family policy, education, economic management, culture. In political life, the implementation of the "advanced liberal society" presupposed the reformatting of the party configuration within the ruling majority, the unification of the president's supporters into a broad centrist federation, the weakening of the Gaullist's and a possible shift to the left center. However, resistance to the implementation of such a strategy by various political forces and acute controversy over the reform of society led to the partial implementation of this project. The liberal-centrist Federation of the Union for French Democracy created. This made it possible to win the 1978 parliamentary elections, but did not allow Giscard d'Estaing to win over Mitterrand again in the 1981 presidential elections. The article is written on the basis of various sources (memoirs, press, journalism, speeches) and the works of Russian and French specialists, which allowed taking into account new assessments to summarize the changes that occurred in France in the 1970s.