Former Greek prime minister Costas Simitis died Sunday at 88, state-run ERT News reported.
Simitis had not been facing a particular health problem.
A former prime minister and one of the founding members of the socialist party Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), Simitis left his mark on the country’s political life.
A founding member of PASOK after the fall of the military junta in 1974, Simitis held several ministerial posts before becoming prime minister.
Simitis succeeded PASOK founder Andreas Papandreou as party leader and served as prime minister of Greece from 1996 to 2004.
His tenure was marked by privatisations, fiscal stability, and moderate foreign policies to modernise Greece’s economy and society.
Under his stewardship, Greece sought to break from its past, intense left-right divisions, begin its final leg of modernisation, and slowly move away from historic clientelism and cronyism.
It was also under Simitis’s lead that PASOK began to occupy the centre-left, diminishing the hyper-partisanship that characterised Greek post-war politics.
Simitis secured reelection in the 2000 general election, leaving a legacy of real modernisation and deeper European cohesion.
He played a critical role in the country’s adoption of the euro in 2001.
