Costas Simitis: Who was the former Prime Minister – From the anti-dictatorical race at Maximos Palace

The country’s political world has been plunged into mourning by the news of the death of the former Prime Minister and his former president, at the age of 88 on Sunday morning (5.1.25). Former President of PASOK, Costas Simitis, died at his cottage in Saint Theodori where he had gone with his family for Christmas holidays. CORVERSE Kostas Simitis was born in Athens in 1936. He studied law and economics in Germany and England. He taught as a professor at the University of Constance in 1971 and as a professor at Gissen University in 1971–1975. In 1977 he was elected Professor of Commercial Law at Panteion University. In 1965 he pioneered the establishment of the “Alexandros Papanastasiou” Group. After the fall of Junta in 1974, he was one of the founders of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) and assumed several ministerial positions when his party assumed power. On 18 January 1996 he succeeded Andrew Papandreou to the Prime Minister after a vote by the PASOK Parliamentary Group representing the “modernist” power pole with the main objective of economic reform of the Greek economy and the social convergence of Greek society with “strong” Europe. CORVERSE On 30 June 1996, a few days after the death of Andreas Papandreou, Kostas Simitis was elected president of PASOK at the 4th Congress of the party. He was re-elected Prime Minister after winning the September 1996 and April 2000 elections. Eurokinissi As Prime Minister Costas Simitis promoted a moderate foreign policy at the same time as the gradual privatisation of the great Greek public sector, aiming at economic stability according to the policies of the European Union. As president of PASOK, he dissociated the party’s speech by qualifying the country’s progress towards European unification. His second term was accompanied by the implementation of austerity measures, aimed at reducing inflation and national debt, as well as efforts to resolve Greek-Turkish disputes over the Cyprus foreign policy problem. Among its major successes is the accession of Greece to Economic and Monetary Union in 2001. The writing and public discourse of Kostas Simitis include texts and books of political and scientific content.