Giscard joins Academie 'immortals'
(Finalmente, obteve o que procurava ..!! )
The 77-year-old former president of France Valery Giscard D'Estaing has succeeded in his bid to become an "immortal."
Not one of the undead, but a member of France's most prestigious and ancient cultural institution - the Academie Francaise.
The former leader, whose most recent task has been writing the blueprint for the EU constitution, put his name forward last month to take the seat left vacant by the late poet-president of Senegal, Leopol-Sedar Senghor.
Valery Giscard D'Estaing was a minister under Charles de Gaulle
In a vote of the club's existing 37 members on Thursday afternoon, he was approved by 19 votes to eight.
He thus becomes the 706th member of an exclusive club founded 360 years ago with the sole task of compiling, very slowly, the definitive French dictionary.
He will earn a stipend of 200 euros a year, an elaborate green-braided uniform, and the right to hobnob with other septuagenarians under the dome of the Academie's palatial headquarters on the Quai de Conti.
The honour may well become him, but it was a close-run thing.
To get the seat VGE, as he is universally known in France, had to overcome the opposition of a group of die-hards in the Academie transfixed by an ancient political grudge.
Humility?
In 1969 VGE was a young ex-finance minister whose long-standing master President Charles de Gaulle was in deep political difficulty.
De Gaulle called a referendum, VGE urged a No vote, the referendum was lost, and the next day de Gaulle resigned. Since then VGE's name has been mud among true Gaullists.
"The only question we ask each other when we're choosing is: Is he good company?"
And among the Academie's existing 37 "immortals" - average age 77 - there are not a few of those.
Their leader Maurice Druon, an 85-year-old novelist who joined de Gaulle in London in the war and wrote the words of the resistance anthem the Song of the Partisans, led the charge.
"What unexpected attack of humility has persuaded Valery Giscard D'Estaing to present his candidacy to the Academie Francaise," he wrote.
"Here is a former president who, when he gave lunches at the Elysee, did not allow anyone to sit in front of him and ate his meal staring at an empty place, like the king at Versailles.
"And we all remember the not-so-charming off-handedness with which he spoke to new academicians when they came for his approval."
Academie leader Maurice Druon had questioned VGE's application
VGE's hauteur when in office from 1974 to 1981 has long been the stuff of legend, but Druon also questioned whether the former president's literary achievement was sufficient to earn him a seat. Being a recognised writer is not essential for Academie membership, but it certainly helps.
As Druon pointed out, VGE's only output so far has been four political books, some memoirs and a romantic novel called Le Passage that was panned by Le Monde in 1994 for its "total absence of originality".
"His literary distinctions are as paltry as his aristocratic ones," Druon said.
Go slow
The Academie was founded by Cardinal de Richelieu in 1635 with the task of "fixing the French language, giving it rules and rendering it pure and comprehensible by all".
Its working speed - or lack of it - is legendary. Members meet every Thursday to consider a few words, and they are currently at the letter "R" of the ninth edition which is due out in 2015.
Members stay members for life and when they finally succumb to mortality, the survivors choose the replacement.
The criteria are supposed to be literary merit and cultural achievement, but members concede other factors also play.
As one member said anonymously to Liberation newspaper: "When you're elected, you're in the saddle for ever. The only question we ask each other when we're choosing is: Is he good company?"
VGE apparently is.
- Hugh Schofield, in Paris
The 77-year-old former president of France Valery Giscard D'Estaing has succeeded in his bid to become an "immortal."
Not one of the undead, but a member of France's most prestigious and ancient cultural institution - the Academie Francaise.
The former leader, whose most recent task has been writing the blueprint for the EU constitution, put his name forward last month to take the seat left vacant by the late poet-president of Senegal, Leopol-Sedar Senghor.
Valery Giscard D'Estaing was a minister under Charles de Gaulle
In a vote of the club's existing 37 members on Thursday afternoon, he was approved by 19 votes to eight.
He thus becomes the 706th member of an exclusive club founded 360 years ago with the sole task of compiling, very slowly, the definitive French dictionary.
He will earn a stipend of 200 euros a year, an elaborate green-braided uniform, and the right to hobnob with other septuagenarians under the dome of the Academie's palatial headquarters on the Quai de Conti.
The honour may well become him, but it was a close-run thing.
To get the seat VGE, as he is universally known in France, had to overcome the opposition of a group of die-hards in the Academie transfixed by an ancient political grudge.
Humility?
In 1969 VGE was a young ex-finance minister whose long-standing master President Charles de Gaulle was in deep political difficulty.
De Gaulle called a referendum, VGE urged a No vote, the referendum was lost, and the next day de Gaulle resigned. Since then VGE's name has been mud among true Gaullists.
"The only question we ask each other when we're choosing is: Is he good company?"
And among the Academie's existing 37 "immortals" - average age 77 - there are not a few of those.
Their leader Maurice Druon, an 85-year-old novelist who joined de Gaulle in London in the war and wrote the words of the resistance anthem the Song of the Partisans, led the charge.
"What unexpected attack of humility has persuaded Valery Giscard D'Estaing to present his candidacy to the Academie Francaise," he wrote.
"Here is a former president who, when he gave lunches at the Elysee, did not allow anyone to sit in front of him and ate his meal staring at an empty place, like the king at Versailles.
"And we all remember the not-so-charming off-handedness with which he spoke to new academicians when they came for his approval."
Academie leader Maurice Druon had questioned VGE's application
VGE's hauteur when in office from 1974 to 1981 has long been the stuff of legend, but Druon also questioned whether the former president's literary achievement was sufficient to earn him a seat. Being a recognised writer is not essential for Academie membership, but it certainly helps.
As Druon pointed out, VGE's only output so far has been four political books, some memoirs and a romantic novel called Le Passage that was panned by Le Monde in 1994 for its "total absence of originality".
"His literary distinctions are as paltry as his aristocratic ones," Druon said.
Go slow
The Academie was founded by Cardinal de Richelieu in 1635 with the task of "fixing the French language, giving it rules and rendering it pure and comprehensible by all".
Its working speed - or lack of it - is legendary. Members meet every Thursday to consider a few words, and they are currently at the letter "R" of the ninth edition which is due out in 2015.
Members stay members for life and when they finally succumb to mortality, the survivors choose the replacement.
The criteria are supposed to be literary merit and cultural achievement, but members concede other factors also play.
As one member said anonymously to Liberation newspaper: "When you're elected, you're in the saddle for ever. The only question we ask each other when we're choosing is: Is he good company?"
VGE apparently is.
- Hugh Schofield, in Paris
publicado por MP às 19:26
