Greeks pay tribute to former Prime Minister Costas Simitis at his state funeral

ATHENS, Greece — Mourners lined the street outside Athens' central cathedral Thursday for the state funeral for former Prime Minister Costas Simitis, the architect of Greece's membership of the European Union's common currency, who died on Sunday at the age of 88.

Politicians paid tribute to the late premier known for his low-key style, singling out his role in securing Greece's entry into the eurozone and helping Cyprus join the European Union in 2004. Greece's accession to the euro came under criticism from some who considered the country's finances not sufficiently prepared for the challenge.

''He set the bar high and boldly for a strong, equal Greece in Europe,'' Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou said in her eulogy. ''The accession to the eurozone and the accession of Cyprus to the European Union were brilliant achievements.''

Current Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis paid tribute to ''a fighter against the dictatorship and a worthy servant of democracy, but also a noble adversary with whom our parties managed to agree on two crucial choices: Greece's accession to the euro and ... Cyprus' entry into the European Union.''

Mitsotakis' conservative New Democracy party was the long-time main rival to the socialist PASOK party Simitis co-founded in 1974.

Simitis' funeral, which came after a four-day official period of mourning, was held with the honors of a sitting prime minister as a sign of respect. After the service in the Metropolitan Cathedral, mourners on foot followed the hearse carrying the former prime minister to 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 hundreds of members of the public who wanted to pay their respects gathered outside the cathedral. Streets in the center of the Greek capital were shut to traffic for the funeral and procession to the cemetery.

A committed pro-European, Simitis served two consecutive four-year terms as prime minister from January 1996 to March 2004 — a record for longevity for a Greek administration. He emerged as the leader of a modernizing wing of PASOK who often clashed with the party leader at the time, 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 new airport and two subway lines to help host the games.

Another of his main achievements was helping Cyprus, an island nation divided between an internationally recognized Greek Cypriot south and a breakaway Turkish Cypriot north, join the European Union in 2004, overcoming wariness by some Europeans concerned over allowing a divided country into the bloc.

Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides was 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.

Simitis, a low-key pragmatist, often clashed with the charismatic, fiery populist Papandreou. When the profligate first four years of PASOK party government from 1981 to 1985 resulted in a rapidly deteriorating economy, Papandreou elevated Simitis to finance minister to oversee a tight austerity program.

The socialists returned to power with Papandreou still at the helm in 1993, but he was ailing and finally resigned the premiership in January 1996. A tight two rounds of voting among the socialist lawmakers unexpectedly elevated Simitis to the post of prime minister, a post he held until 2004.

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 from 1941 to 1944 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.

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