Costas Simitis

Konstantinos ( Kostas ) Simitis (Greek Κωνσταντίνος Σημίτης, born June 23, 1936 in Piraeus) is a Greek politician and was dated 22 January 1996 to March 10, 2004 Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic.

Career

Konstantinos Simitis studied law and economics at the Philipps University in Marburg (1954-1959), where he also received his doctorate in 1959 with a dissertation on " Good manners and ordre publique ". He then continued his studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science continued ( 1961-1963 ). From 1971 he worked as a lecturer at the University of Konstanz, 1971, he was appointed as Professor of Commercial and Civil Law at the Justus -Liebig -University of Giessen, where he worked until 1975. In 1977, he was a professor at the political science Panteion University of Athens. Since 1961 Simitits is also available as a lawyer at the Areopagus, the supreme court in Athens, works.

Simitis 's brother Spiros Simitis, the long-term data protection officer of the State of Hesse.

Policy

Simitis was an active participant in the resistance against the military dictatorship and a member of the National Council of the Panhellenic Liberation Movement ( PAK ). By fleeing into exile German (1969-1974) he escaped imminent arrest. Simitis is a founding member of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK, on September 3, 1974) and became a member of the Board and the Bureau of the party. Since 1985 he was a deputy of PASOK for the electoral district of Piraeus. He held ministerial posts in all governments and all-party coalition of 1989., He came into conflict with Andreas Papandreou, he criticized its populist policies, although this was dependent on him because of the economic competence of Simitis. Twice a party exclusion method it was threatened.

On June 30, 1996 Simitis came the succession of the deceased shortly after party founder Andreas Papandreou as prime minister, initially intended as a provisional up to the parliamentary elections then, he was able to prevail. On 8 February 2004, he resigned as prime minister back, by its own account, to start a generational change, from the perspective of the opponent, because he had lost in favor of the voters. His successor as leader of PASOK, Giorgos Papandreou, was that he had previously used as Secretary of State, in which office he promoted the reconciliation with Turkey.