Former French president Valery Giscard d’Estaing is dead.

He died at the age of 94 at his home in the central French department of Loir-et-Cher on Wednesday from complications linked to COVID-19.

Giscard became president of France at the age of 48 from 1974 until 1982, the youngest person elected in the 20th century, he embarked on a radical reform drive which included the legalisation of abortion, the liberalisation of divorce and lowering the voting age to 18.

He lost the 1981 presidential election to Socialist Francois Mitterrand.

The deceased led France into the modern era and was a key architect of European integration in the early 1970s.

''His state of health had worsened and he died as a consequence of COVID-19,” the family said in a statement sent to the AFP news agency, adding that his funeral would be strictly private according to his wishes.

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Before his death, Giscard was admitted for some months in hospital for heart problems.

He died “surrounded by his family” at the family home in the Loire region.

In Europe, he helped drive moves towards a monetary union, in close cooperation with German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and the two men became good friends. Together they launched the European Monetary System (EMS), a precursor of today’s single currency, the euro.

Tributes poured in from across the political spectrum in France.