(5 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Rome, Italy – 7 June 2003
++4:3++
1. Then-Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and then-Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis enter room for photo op
2. Berlusconi and Simitis shaking hands and posing for photos
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Washington, DC – 25 June 2003
++4:3++
3. Simitis, then-US President George W Bush and then-European Union Foreign Policy coordinator Javier Solana at news conference
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Costas Simitis, then-Greek Prime Minister:
"We should always act on the basis that what unites us will always outweigh any issue that divide us."
5. Simitis speaking at briefing
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Costas Simitis, then-Greek Prime Minister:
"And President Bush said also that there must be transparency, there must be application of the international rules and nothing more. There was no discussion about force and no, none of us has ever mentioned force in this case."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Athens, Greece – 25 May 2017
7. SOUNDBITE (Greek) Costas Simitis, former Greek Prime Minister:
"The assassination attempt against him (former Greek Prime Minister, Lucas Papademos) shows that a sad situation resigns in this country. The ones that do a good job, the ones that are taking care of country, are becoming targets. The rights of citizens in this country do not exist, or are limited, or are in danger. I wish Mr Papademos a quick recovery and the doctors have assured me that this will indeed happen "
STORYLINE:
Costas Simitis, former prime minister of Greece and the architect of the country’s joining the common European currency, the euro, has died at age 88, state TV ERT reported.
Simitis was taken to a hospital in the city of Corinth early Sunday morning from his holiday home west of Athens, unconscious and without a pulse, the hospital’s director was quoted as saying by Greek media.
An autopsy will be performed to determine the cause of death.
The government decreed a four-day period of official mourning. Simitis will receive a state funeral.
Simitis, a co-founder of the Socialist PASOK party in 1974, eventually became the successor to the party’s founding leader, Andreas Papandreou, with whom he had an often contentious relationship that shaped the party’s nature.
Simitis was a low-key pragmatist where Papandreou was a charismatic, fiery populist.
He was also a committed pro-European, while Papandreou banked on strong opposition to Greece’s joining what was then the European Economic Community in the 1970s, before changing tack once he became prime minister.
When the profligate first four years of socialist rule, from 1981 to 1985, resulted in a rapidly deteriorating economy, Papandreou elevated Simitis to be finance minister and oversee a tight austerity programme.
Finances improved, inflation was partly tamed, but Simitis was pushed to resign in 1987 when Papandreou, eyeing an upcoming election, announced a generous wages policy, undermining the goals of the austerity programme.
The socialists returned to power with Papandreou still at the helm in 1993, but he was ailing and finally resigned the premiership in January 1996.
A tight two rounds of voting among the socialist lawmakers unexpectedly elevated Simitis to the post of prime minister, a post he held until 2004.
Simitis considered Greece’s entry into the eurozone, in January 2001, as the signature achievement of his premiership.
He also helped Cyprus join the European Union in 2004.
Simitis is survived by his wife of 60 years, Daphne, two daughters and a granddaughter.
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