Kostas Simitis, Greece’s former prime minister and a key architect of the country’s modern economic policies, has died at the age of 88.
Local reports say Simitis fell ill at his home in Agios Theodoros and was rushed to a hospital in Corinth, where doctors were unable to save him.
Simitis served as prime minister from 1996 to 2004, succeeding Andreas Papandreou. He was widely credited with modernizing Greece, leading the nation into the Eurozone and launching major infrastructure projects that transformed the country.
In 2000, during an EU summit in Thessaloniki, he proposed a landmark strategy for Balkan integration into the European Union. This initiative made Greece a strong advocate for its neighbors’ EU membership bids.
