Former Greek prime minister Costas Simitis, who led the country into the European Union’s single currency in 2001, died on Sunday aged 88 at his summer house in the Peloponnese. While most mainstream media are reporting the death of Costas Simitis as some type of great disaster to the people of Greece, declaring a 4-day of mourning and a state funeral, a closer look beyond the hubris and smoke and mirrors is A legacy of weakness, concessions, and economic disasters.
The government proclaimed four days of mourning and said his funeral on Thursday, Jan. 9 will be at the state’s expense.
While Simitis had been credited for reducing bloated government spending, critics say he did not do enough to rein in corruption.
Five years after he left power, Greece fell into an unprecedented, decade-long debt crisis that nearly saw it exit the eurozone. Economists trace back the roots of that crisis to graft and corruption during the years of Simitis’ rule and earlier.
The most influential Greek prime minister since 1974 has been neither the charismatic Andreas Papandreou nor the “ethnarch” Konstantinos Karamanlis. It was the colourless Costas Simitis who died at the age of 88.
Simitis, following the international ideological trends of the 1990s (see the rise of Blair and Clinton), inaugurated in our country the era of the philhellenic consensus in which we are still living today. Indeed, 29 years after his ascension to the Prime Minister’s office, Costas Simitis seems to have never left the Mansion House since, whatever we have voted since 1996, the only thing that is certain is that the country has moved steadily in the constellation of Semitism, with all governments after him, regardless of party, following his policies faithfully and with his close associates still in top state and government positions. Greece built by Simitis and his successors is a Brussels colony with fake “development” based on EU packages and “creative accounting” , a country with blind faith in the view that all our problems will be solved by our good allies, with pervasive corruption, a large and inefficient State, state-driven and corrupt business, high taxes and lack of structural changes. As for the success of this model? “We will not become Ireland,” Simitis said when he was prime minister to show his distaste for the low government spending and tax policy pursued by the Celtic Tiger. Some decades later, and thanks to these policies, Ireland’s GDP per capita is now 212% of the EU average and Greece’s GDP, thanks to the Simitis model, is at… 67%. We have indeed ‘not become Ireland’.
In the days to come, the domestic elites and their parrots will not stop praising Costas Simitis and his work (and rightly so for them, since he was the man who built a system that has for decades ensured them unlimited power, easy money and enormous influence). Don’t believe a word they say. The real consequences of Simitis’ premiership have been disastrous for the country and we will be paying for them for many decades to come.
Simitis imposed the co-decision on Clerides
It was essentially for political reasons that the Simitis government “imposed” on President Clerides the “co-decision” to cancel the installation of the missiles in Cyprus and exile them to Crete. This decision triggered a storm of reactions in Cyprus and resulted in the honourable resignation of Yiannakis Omirou as Minister of Defence on 4 January 1999, in only the tenth month of his ministerial term. The “Record” contains the Minister’s letter of resignation, his speech at the Ministry’s handover ceremony and his message to the National Guard officers. Written monuments to the political stature, patriotism and morality of the man who had the courage to resign for reasons of principle and political decency. A rare phenomenon in the annals of Cypriot political history.
The legacy of Costas Simitis
• 1996. Imia
• 1996. Madrid (grey zones/recognition of Turkey’s “vital interests in the Aegean”)
• 1996. Upgrading of ELIAMEP and shift in foreign policy towards appeasement
• 997. Helsinki (recognition of “border disputes” with Turkey!)
• 1999. Ocalan surrender
• 1999. Stock market scandal (statement that “the index will go up to 10,000 points” at the TIF a few days before it completely collapsed)
• 2000. Attack of anti-clericalism. Launched by removing religion from identity cards. But after strong reactions from Christodoulos, the attack was suspended and none of the other measures went forward.
Throughout his tenure
• 1996-2000. Entry into EMU with the Goldman Sachs swaps scandal (first greeconomics incident)
• 1996-2004. Corruption and the Siemens scandal 1996-2004 corruption (Tsoukatos, Mandelis, Chochatzopoulos, submarines)
• 1996-2004. Agreement in advance (together with G. Clerides) on the upcoming Annan Plan, whatever it was. He eventually walked out a month before the referendum (and Clerides had walked out a year before the referendum), enabling Tassos Papadopoulos to reject it
• 1996-2004. Ethno-denationalism in education. Ordering 150 deconstructive books in the school curriculum. These books include the infamous Maria Repousi’s book, language books for high school with an introduction to paedophilia (“Osakis”), astrology texts (by Kostas Lefakis!), and texts by Kostas Simitis himself(!)
ΕΙΣ ΟΙΩΝΟΣ ΑΡΙΣΤΟΣ: ΑΜΥΝΕΣΘΑΙ ΠΕΡΙ ΠΑΤΡΗΣ
This Homeric axiom is an ancient Hellenic ideal meaning: There is One omen that is best: to defend your homeland. Greek sons have fought and fallen for millennia, fighting back against barbarians and safeguarding the motherland and Western Civilization.
This axiom comes from heroic Hector who a sheer tried stopping from counter-attacking the Achaeans due to a bad omen. Hector rebukes him by saying that there is only one good omen: defending one’s homeland.
The monument is dedicated to 3 sons of Hellas who fell defending her from barbarians. Turkey invaded one of the small islands of the Aegean in 1996 and it escalated fast. The 3 heroes flew a helicopter for reconnaissance, under bad conditions, and crashed into the sea.
The ONLY national mourning that Hellas owes in January is for the fallen heroes; not the cowardly politicians who sold her out. ΑΘΑΝΑΤΟΙ!
