Former prime minister Costas Simitis' funeral will be held on Thursday, with the service at the Athens Metropolitan Cathedral starting at 12:00, followed by burial at the First Cemetery of Athens.

Simitis, a former PASOK leader, died early on Sunday morning. He was 88.

Eulogies will be delivered by President of the Hellenic Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou, PASOK-KINAL leader Nikos Androulakis, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, former minister and professor Tassos Giannitsis, and professors Yiannis Voulgaris and Constantinos Tsoukalas.

Biography

Costas Simitis was born in Piraeus on June 23, 1936. He studied law and economics in Germany and England, where he met his wife Daphne (née Arkadiou). They had two daughters, Fiona and Marilena.

Simitis played an active part in the struggle against the dictatorship in Greece (1967-1974) and esceped to Germany. There, in 1970, he became a member of PASOK forerunner PAK (Panhellenic Liberation Movement). In 1974  became a founding member of PASOK and a member of its first Executive Office and first Central Committee.

He succeeded PASOK founder Andreas Papandreou as prime minister in 1996 by a party vote, and was voted party leader after Papandreou's death. Simitis was reelected PASOK leader in 1999 and 2001, and prime minister in 2000. Committed to a smooth transition of power, Simitis announced he would resign his leadership of the party in January 2004, remaining prime minister until the end of his term and the calling of elections in March 2004.

Among his key achievements as prime minister are Greece's membership in the Economic and Monetary Union of Europe, while during his eight-year term he also carried out key infrastructural works for the preparation of the Olympic Games in Athens and Cyprus Republic's membership to the European Union.

According to his official page, "As prime minister, he sought to modernize Greek society, especially for the stabilization and development of the Greek economy and the strengthening of Greece's position in Europe and its international surroundings."
Following the end of his last term as prime minister and as a member of Parliament, he continued to be active in public life through speeches and opinion articles.
 

See also:

Traffic restrictions on Thursday for funeral of Costas Simitis