Former Prime Minister Costas Simitis has passed away at the age of 88. According to reports, he was at his country house in Agioi Theodoroi, Corinth. He was taken to the Corinth Hospital at 07:31 on Sunday morning without consciousness. His death was pronounced at 8:10 am, after unsuccessful resuscitation attempts.
Simitis was born in Piraeus on 23 June 1936. He studied law and economics in Germany and England, where he met his wife, Daphne, with whom he had two daughters.
On 18 January 1996 he succeeded Andreas Papandreou as Prime Minister following a vote by the PASOK Parliamentary Group. He was re-elected Prime Minister in the national elections of 9 April 2000. At the subsequent PASOK Congress in October 2001, he was elected leader of the party for the third time.
One of the most important successes of his term of office was the accession of Greece to the Economic and Monetary Union.
As noted on Simitis' official website, "during his premiership he sought to modernise Greek society, particularly to stabilise and develop the Greek economy and to strengthen Greece's position in Europe and its international environment."