Former Greek prime minister Costas Simitis died on Sunday at the age of 88, his private office announced.
He was transferred without a pulse early Sunday morning at the Corinth hospital from his summer house of Agii Theodoroi in the Peloponnese. He has pronounced dead, despite efforts to resuscitate him.
The Greek government has declared four days of national mourning while Simitis will be buried with the full honors bestowed on an active prime minister. The funeral service will be held at noon on Thursday, January 9 at the Athens Cathedral. Simitis will be buried at the First Cemetery of Athens, the resting place of eminent politicians, actors and other historical figures.
Simitis, also a founding member of the socialist party Panhellenic Socialist Movement known as PASOK after the fall of the military junta in 1974, left his mark on Greece’s political life.
He held several ministerial posts before taking the helm of the country, when he succeeded PASOK founder Andreas Papandreou and became Greece’s prime minister from 2006 until 2004. He is remembered for his critical role in the country’s adoption of the euro in 2001.
During his tenure, Simitis pushed for privatizations, fiscal stability and moderate foreign policies, aiming to modernize Greek economy and society, while Cyprus became a member of the European Union. He leaves a legacy of modernization and deeper European cohesion.
Simitis has also written several political and scientific books.
Condolences pouring in from Greece’s politicians for Simitis’ loss
Katerina Sakellaropoulou, President of the Hellenic Republic, said in a statement that “Costas Simitis was one of the most important and multi-faceted political figures in our modern history,” and added that “as a prime minister, through a steady reference to modernization and social democracy, he envisioned Greece as equal and powerful within Europe.”
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who calls Simitis “a deserving and noble opponent,” on a post on his Facebook account, says that Simitis was the Prime Minister “who accompanied Greece during its big, national steps: entering the Eurozone and the euro and seeing Cyprus becoming a member of the European Union. (He was) the personality, who, without a doubt leaves his own mark on the evolution of the country, throughout all past decades.”
Nikos Androulakis, leader of PASOK, said that “Costas Simitis was a major political figure for Greece, and he left behind a great political legacy while he made a reality the vision of Greece earning a strong place in Europe.”
Many PASOK party members and former ministers have also been paying tributes to the late former prime minister. Anna Diamantopoulou, in charge of the party’s political planning, posted on Facebook that Simitis “with the way he lived and acted, (he) taught righteousness. A teacher for all of us who worked with him.”
Who was Costas Simitis
Born Konstantinos (Costas) G. Simitis, in Piraeus to Georgios Simitis, a Professor at the School of Economic and Commercial Sciences, and to his wife Fani Christopoulou. Simitis studied law at the University of Marburg in Germany and economics at the London School of Economics. He was married to Daphne Arkadiou and had two daughters, Fiona and Marilena.
Simitis was known as the Greek politician who led the ‘Modernization’ movement of Greece.
Simitis was appointed Minister of Agriculture in Papandreou’s first government. He stayed there until 1985. He was moved to be Minister of National Economy in 1985 when PASOK’s profligacy needed a new financial ‘stability’ to be imposed in the form of an economic adjustment program and this marked Simitis’ subsequent reputation. With stability achieved and the party’s popularity waning, Andreas distanced himself from Simitis’ policies and Simitis resigned. Simitis gained additional ministerial experience in 1989–90 as Education Minister in the Zolotas all-party government (and again later as Industry, Energy, Technology, and Commerce Minister from 1993 to 1995).
In 1996, Simitis won the leadership of PASOK after Papandreou’s failing health. However, the leadership transition from Papandreou to Simitis was confrontational by loyalists of the former Prime Minister, who wanted to prevent such a transition from being realized. Simitis lacked his predecessor’s charisma, and the fractured party’s support limited many of his actions in government. However, by the end of his tenure in 2004, Simitis had several significant achievements and reforms in the wider society and economy to proclaim.
The performance of the Greek economy under Simitis sealed the Greek entry into the Euro currency and closing the journey of aligning Greece with the West that started with Eleftherios Venizelos and continued with Constantine Karamanlis. Simitis also succeeded in the Cypriot accession into the EU, a diplomatic priority for Greece.
The successful completion of the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics also boosted Greece’s positive image as a modern state capable of undertaking sophisticated tasks. Moreover, a variety of large-scale infrastructure projects were completed, like the new Eleftherios Venizelos airport, the Athens ring road, Athens Metro, and Rio–Antirrio Bridge. New institutions were also introduced, such as the Greek Ombudsman and a number of regulatory bodies to supervise market liberalization.
After the debt crisis erupted in Greece in 2009, the legacy of Simitis would be re-interpreted by critics as not being enough or misleading. However, government institutions under Simitis were developed and strengthened in their capacity to reform, appearing both more ‘modern’ and ‘European.’
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