Greece holds state funeral for former PM Costas Simitis

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Mourners lined the street outside Athens’ central cathedral Thursday ahead of the state funeral for former Prime Minister Costas Simitis, the architect of Greece’s joining the European Union’s common currency, who died last weekend at the age of 88.

Simitis will be buried with the honors of a sitting prime minister as a sign of respect to his service. A funeral service in the capital’s Metropolitan Cathedral will be held at noon before his burial in Athens’ First Cemetery, the resting place of numerous notable Greeks, including politicians, musicians and artists.

In accordance with the wishes of his family, Simitis’ body did not lie in state, but members of the public who wanted to pay their respects gathered outside the cathedral. Streets in the center of the Greek capital were gradually being shut to traffic for the funeral and procession to the cemetery.

A committed pro-European, Simitis served as prime minister from January 1996 to March 2004 and holds the record for longevity for a Greek administration. A co-founder of the socialist PASOK party in 1974, he emerged as the leader of a modernizing wing of the party who often clashed with then party leader and Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou before eventually succeeding him in 1996.

Simitis considered Greece’s entry into the eurozone in January 2001 as the signature achievement of his premiership. But he also helped secure the 2004 Olympic Games for Athens and presided over a vast program of infrastructure building, including a brand new airport and two subway lines, to help host the games. He also helped Cyprus join the European Union in 2004.

A four-day official period of mourning was declared after Simitis’ death on Sunday. The former prime minister was taken to a hospital in Corinth from his holiday home west of Athens unconscious and without a pulse, and medical staff were unable to resuscitate him.

Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides was expected to be among the mourners at Thursday’s funeral. On Sunday, he praised the late prime minister as an “outstanding leader” who has earned a special place in the history of not only Greece, but also of Cyprus.

Born on June 23, 1936, Simitis was the younger son of two politically active parents. His lawyer father Georgios was a member of the left-leaning resistance “government” during the German occupation and his mother, Fani, was an active feminist.

Simitis studied law at the University of Marburg, in Germany, in the 1950s, and economics and politics at the London School of Economics in the early 1960s. He later taught law at the University of Athens. His elder brother Spiros, who died in 2023, was a noted legal scholar in Germany.