Costas Simitis Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Σημίτης
9th Prime Minister of the Third Hellenic Republic
In office January 22, 1996 – March 10, 2004
Preceded by	Andreas Papandreou
Succeeded by	Kostas Karamanlis
Born	June 23 1936 (1936--) (age 71) Athens, Greece
Political party	Panhellenic Socialist Movement
Spouse	Daphni Arkadiou

Konstantinos Simitis (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Σημίτης) (born June 23, 1936), usually referred to as Costas Simitis, was Prime Minister of Greece and leader of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) from 1996 to 2004.

Biography

Costas Simitis was born in Piraeus to Georgios Simitis, a Professor at the School of Economic and Commercial Sciences, and to his wife Fani (nee Christopoulou). He studied Law at the University of Marburg in Germany and economics at the London School of Economics. He is married to Daphne Arkadiou and has two daughters, Fiona and Marilena. His brother Spiros Simitis is a prominent jurist specializing on data privacy in Germany.

Political activity before 1981

In 1965 he returned to Greece and was one of the founders of the "Alexandros Papanastasiou" political research group . In 1967, after the military coup of April 21, this group was transformed into Democratic Defense, an organization opposed to the military regime. Simitis escaped abroad after planting bombs in the streets of Athens (in later years he acknowledged his activities on Greek MEGA TV channel) in order to avoid being jailed and became a member of the Panhellenic Liberation Movement (PAK), led by Andreas Papandreou. He also took up a position as university lecturer in Germany. He returned to Athens in 1974 and was one of the co-founders of PAK's successor, the PASOK. In 1977 he took up a lecturer's post at the Panteion University.

Ministerial offices

Simitis was not a candidate for the Greek Parliament in the 1981 elections, but he was appointed Minister of Agriculture in the first PASOK government of that year. Following the 1985 elections and his election as a deputy to the Parliament, he became Minister of National Economy; he undertook an unpopular stabilization program, trying to curb inflation and reduce deficits, but resigned his post in 1987 because he felt that his policies were being undermined. In 1993 he took over the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, but in 1995 he again resigned from the ministry and the party's Executive Bureau following a public rebuke he received by Prime Minister Papandreou.

Rise to Prime Minister and President of PASOK

On January 18, 1996 on Papandreou resigned as Prime Minister due to ill health. In a special election held by the party's parliamentary group, Simitis was elected in his place, over the candidacies of Akis Tsochatzopoulos and Gerasimos Arsenis. Papandreou however remained Chairman of the party for the next months until his death on June 23, just before a party conference would select the party's vice-president; after Papandreou's death, the conference would elect the new Party President. Simitis was elected in PASOK's Fourth Congress on June 30, defeating Akis Tsochatzopoulos on a platform of support for the European Union.

Costas Simitis

Simitis then led the party in the national elections of September 22, 1996, gaining a mandate in his own right. He also narrowly won the national election of 2000. Although he is widely respected throughout Europe, in Greece Simitis was regarded by some Greeks as a rather dull technocrat, lacking the charisma of Papandreou.

On 7 January 2004, with PASOK's popularity collapsing, Simitis announced that he would resign as party president and would not stand for re-election a Prime Minister in the forthcoming legislative elections. At the time he was accused of bowing out to avoid humiliation at the polls. However, by the end of his tenure on March 10, he would be in office for over 8 consecutive years, the longest continuous term in modern Greek history. In a past interview Simitis had already stated that he will remain prime minister for only 2 legislative periods, since "he wanted to do other things in his life as well". On January 8 he called elections for the position of party president to be held on February 8. Simitis was succeeded as PASOK leader by then-Minister of Foreign Affairs George Papandreou, the only candidate in these elections. Despite Papandreou's personal popularity, PASOK lost the March 7 elections to the conservative New Democracy party, whose leader Kostas Karamanlis succeeded Simitis in the office of Prime Minister.

Policies and Legacy

Financial policies

Simitis is largely known in Greece for his political philosophy which is known as Eksynchronismos ("modernization") which focuses on extensive public investment and infrastructure works as well as economic and labor reforms. Simitis is credited by his supporters with overcoming chronic problems of the Greek economy and thus achieving the admittance of Greece into the Eurozone. During the period of his governance, official data presented inflation as having decreased from 15% to 3%, public deficits diminished from 14% to 3%, GDP increasing at an annual average of 4% and factual labor incomes having increased at a rate of 3% per year. However, the macroeconomic data presented by Simitis' government were called into question by an audit performed by the successor government of New Democracy in 2004. Although political gain was a motive behind this move, Eurostat concluded in 2006 that the public deficit of the Greek economy amounted to 6,1% in 2003, more than double the percentage presented by Simitis' government.[1] The results of the audit concluded that the PASOK administration used different accounting methods, especially for calculating the military expenses during its term. The government of New Democracy used the revised data as a means to criticize the previous government for incompetent economic policy and a falsification of an economic indicator, namely the public deficit, which among other criteria was used as a basis on which Greece was accepted into the Eurozone. PASOK contested the accusations and claimed that 2006 Eurostat changes to the system of defense expenditure calculation [2] legitimized the practices of the Simitis government. New Democracy responded that the defense expenditures covered by those changes constituted only a small part of much more substantial expenditures that were fraudulently concealed by the PASOK government. Whether Simitis' government conducted any unconventional handling of Greek fiscal data continues to be a hotly contested issue between the two political parties.

A major issue during Simitis' tenure concerned corruption, which has become endemic in Greek public life. Simitis rejected New Democracy's bills for accountability and transparency with regards to governmental expenditure and decisions [3], and New Democracy leader Kostas Karamanlis accused Simitis during a parliamentary plenum of being an "archpriest of cronyism", referencing the index of the NGO Transparency International. However, Greece's position has fallen by 5 places in the same index during the New Democracy government.

Many large-scale infrastructure projects were carried out or begun during the so-called 'era of Eksychronismos', such as the new "Eleftherios Venizelos" Athens International Airport, the Rio-Antirio bridge, the Athens Metro, or the Egnatia Odos. Because of this, political analysts of the modern Greek history have compared Simitis to prominent Greek reformist politicians of the past such as Charilaos Trikoupis and Eleftherios Venizelos.[4]

Interior issues

In 1996, the appointment of the PASOK-leaning "To Vima" newspaper editor, Stavros Psycharis, as administrator of Mount Athos was particularly criticised by the opposition [5]. In 2000, Simitis was embroiled in a dispute with the Archbishop of the influential Greek Orthodox Church, Christodoulos, when the Greek government sought to remove the "Religion" field from the national ID cards carried by Greek citizens, after a decision of the Greek Commission for the Protection of Citizens' Private Data. Christodoulos opposed the decision, claiming that it had been "put forward by neo-intellectuals who want to attack us like rabid dogs and tear at our flesh". [6] He organised two demonstrations in Athens and Thessaloniki, alongside a majority of bishops of the Church of Greece. The attitude of Simitis arose few supporters within his party, further fewer among other opposition parties. The then-opposition leader signed a petition, organized by Church of Greece, calling for a referendum on the matter. However, the inclusion of religious beliefs on ID cards, even on a voluntary basis, as the Church had asked, was subsequently deemed unconstitutional by Greek courts and the issue has been sidelined.

Foreign policy

While PASOK traditionalists disliked his move away from more orthodox norms of Democratic socialism, and also his relative moderation on issues such as the Cyprus dispute and the FYROM name dispute, his supporters saw both of these as positive elements of the eksynchronismos movement that Simitis was seen as spearheading.

During January-June 2003, Simitis, as Greek Prime Minister, exercised the presidency of the European Council.

Works

Simitis has authored several books and articles on legal and issues as well as on politics.

Political works

• «Structural Opposition», Athens 1979
• «Politics, Government and Law», Athens 1981
• «Politics of Financial stabilization», N. Garganas, T. Thomopoulos, Costas Simitis, G. Spraos, introduction-preface: Costas Simitis, Athens 1989, Gnosi Publications
• «Populism and Politics», N. Mouzelis, T. Lipovach, M. Spourdalakis, introduction Costas Simitis, Athens 1989, Gnosi Publications
• «Development and modernisation of the Greek Society», Athens 1989, Gnosi Publications
• «Views on the politic strategy of PASOK», Athens, 1990
• «Propositions for another politics», Athens 1992, Gnosi Publications
• «Nationalist Populism or national strategy;», Athens 1992, Gnosi Publications
• «Let's dare united», Athens 1994
• «For a strong society and a strong Greece», Athens 1995, Plethron Publications
• «For a financially strong and socially fair Greece», Athens 2002, Kastanioti Publications
• «For a strong in Europe and in the world Greece», Athens 2002, Kastanioti Publications
• «For a strong, modern and democratic Greece», Athens 2002, Kastanioti Publications
• On 2005 he published his book Politics for a Creative Greece 1996-2004 ("Πολιτική για μια Δημιουργική Ελλάδα 1996-2004" in Greek) where he presented in great extend his work during his chairmanship. Polis Publications

See also

• Politics of Greece

External links

• His profile in Who is Who at Nato
• Simitis' article on Greece's deficit revision in 2004 by the new government as posted in Financial Times
• (Greek) Website of Costas Simitis

Donate to Wikimedia