Nikos Androuliakis for Kostas Simitis: You belong to the pantheon of great European leaders

Apparently moved the farewell to one of PASOK’s historical leaders. PASOK President Nikos Androuliakis, referring to Kostas Simitis, stressed that he was always present in the major battles. “You now belong to the pantheon of the great European leaders, you have been a model of modesty, you were the political antidote to his authority,” he said. CORVERSE Our country today honors the Prime Minister who has done the strong Greece in Europe and has indelibly sealed the post-civil history of the country. PASOK says goodbye to the Leader’s second Historian, after Andreas Papandreou. The political world becomes poorer, as it lost a great personality of international scope, which enriched creatively and rightly the public debate. ADVERSE, Dear President, With deep emotion I remember the little book you donated to me in one of our first conversations. A publication of the Alexander Papanastasiou Group, founded with other restless democrats in the years of your youth. You have made me a commune of your political thinking and ideals with which you have always fought the battle against maintenance and fatalism. Anyone who reads that text realizes you weren’t fighting tactics. You had identified early on the historical roots of the state’s pathogens and shaped the political vision of overcoming them. That is why your struggle against customerism, stereotypes, and establishment that engulfed society and democracy was constant. With creative breaks, many times against the current, you acted in Greece of national confidence, social justice and extroversion. For these values you have fought since the post-conflict years, the years of junta and later on in the post-politization through PASOK. You collected a large social majority around the Political Vision of Modernism. But giving him clearly progressive content, as your work testifies, long before words lose their true meaning. You argued that no reform is politically neutral. As a “Left with social democratic ideas”, as you described yourself, you believed that the realization of modernisation is not just a technocratic process, but implies mobilisation and social struggle. The citizen in this process must have merit and be PARTICIPANT. Otherwise no reform will last in the long term. The importance of these positions was demonstrated during the economic crisis. A crisis, of course, for which you had in time and boldly warned from the House step in 2008. The work of PASOK governments in 1996-2004 was linked to one of the most creative periods of modern Greece. Kostas Simitis was the most appropriate leader in a time of rapid change and enormous challenges: European integration had entered an irreversible course, while increasing globalisation required a elaborate adaptation plan from the national states, so that their societies would not plunge into decline. The politician, who said little but planned and did much, joined hands with the Greek people on the road to convergence with Europe’s most developed economies. His government’s achievements are stations in the history of the place. Greece’s entry into the euro and the accession of Cyprus to the European Union with the Cyprus issue unsolved. I really want you to think about the consequences that Hellenism would have faced from Turkish pursuits for partitioning the island, if this insightful leader had not planned this great national success. Costas Simitis was a coformator of History, not a follower of it. An equal interlocutory of the strongest leaders who won with his credibility and realism. He expressed a distinct view on the basis of his own ‘I believe’, as he did fighting for a self-sufficient ‘Europe of the peoples’, even opposing the American invasion of Iraq. In 2004, it left Greece more optimistic and powerful than ever. The successful preparation of the Olympic Games was proof that the country, when it has leadership with a plan, can highlight its best self. The most important legacy it leaves is the vision of lasting SOCIAL CONVENTION with the most developed European countries. She deeply believed that Greece is not doomed to lag. Let’s imagine what our country would be like without the major infrastructure projects such as the Riou-Antirion Bridge, the Egnatia Street, Metro, Attiki Street, the Eleftherios Venizelos Airport and more. Its stable priorities were the strong Social State, the Support of the Labour World and the prudent Financial Policy. He breathed on public universities. He supported public health with 11 new hospitals and implemented permanent social interventions, such as EKAS and Home Help. It promoted institutional modernization of the state and the Public Administration, with the constitutional consolidation of independent authorities, the establishment of JEPs and the promotion of a multitude of reforms that improved the lives of citizens. Because eventually the real progressive modernisation is complete. It doesn’t just mean economic progress. At the same time it means strengthening institutions and respecting human rights, upgrading and not degradation of the rule of law. It means transparency and responsibility in decision-making, fair dividend from growth rather than widening inequalities. Real modernisation means a fairer tax system that supports the world of work. Making use of European funds for regional development rather than for their clientele by strong interests. This is the legacy of Kostas Simitis, which is a constant social and political compass of our Movement. Our dear President, you have marched with a rare political ethos in your public presence. Always present in the great battles of our Expansion. Your integrity, your institutionality and your method made history. You now belong to the Pantheon of the great European leaders. At a time when liberal democracy and social cohesion are threatened, social democrat politicians, such as yourself, are beacons for all of us who share the same political beliefs. But in your personal life you have been a model of modesty and simplicity. Always discreetly, without drumming and morals. You were the political antidote to the arrogance of power. You have shown us that much that seems impossible is up to us to achieve. That a different path to maintenance is possible: This progressive patriotism you’ve served all your way. Today Greece bows to one of the greatest leaders of its modern history. Your eternal memory, my dear President.”