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Obituaries|Costas Simitis, 2-Time Prime Minister of Greece, Dies at 88
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/05/obituaries/costas-simitis-dead.html
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Mr. Simitis imposed financial measures to prepare for Greece’s entry into the eurozone and laid the groundwork for the Olympic Games’ return to Athens.
Jan. 5, 2025, 10:01 a.m. ET
Costas Simitis, a former prime minister of Greece who oversaw his country’s entry into the euro single currency and its uneven preparations for the 2004 Olympic Games, died on Sunday at a hospital in Corinth, Greece. He was 88.
Grigoris Karpouzis, the hospital’s director, confirmed his death in a statement but did not give a cause. The Greek government declared four days of national mourning for Mr. Simitis, who will receive a state burial.
A low-key politician who proved popular with voters, Mr. Simitis demonstrated more sympathy for capitalism and the United States than some of his predecessors as prime minister. His two successive premierships yielded the longest continuous term of any modern Greek prime minister, although the man he succeeded, Andreas Papandreou, served a longer total over three terms separated by a period in opposition.
Both the hosting of the Games and the adoption of the euro in 2001 seemed to betoken an unaccustomed self-confidence, optimism and national pride among Greeks.
Yet, in a land whose ancient Greek forebears coined the notion of hubris as a potent ingredient of tragedy, both developments contributed to a crippling debt crisis that raised questions about Greek membership in the European Union and ballooned into a broader crisis across the eurozone.
The Summer Olympics, held shortly after Mr. Simitis left office in March 2004, were billed as a homecoming, not only to the venue of the inaugural modern Olympics in 1896, but also to the birthplace of the ancient games in 776 B.C.
