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

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — 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.

“He was a prime minister (who was) a modernizer, he reformed Greece,” said Apostolos Xilogiannis, who joined the crowd outside the cathedral. “He brought a different air, he said few words and produced results. He meant what he said.”

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.

Finances improved and inflation was partly tamed, but Simitis was pushed to resign in 1987 when Papandreou, eyeing an upcoming election, announced a generous wages policy, undermining the goals of the 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.

Lefteris Pitarakis and Demetris Nellas in Athens contributed

Pallbearers carry the coffin of former Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis during his state funeral in Athens' central cathedral, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Military officers stand next to the Greek flag-draped casket during the state funeral of the late Costas Simitis former Prime Minister of Greece in Athens' central cathedral, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Relatives and officials attend the state funeral of the late Costas Simitis former Prime Minister of Greece in Athens' central cathedral, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Military officers accompanied the Greek flag-draped casket during the state funeral of the late Costas Simitis former Prime Minister of Greece in Athens' central cathedral, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

The family of the late Costas Simitis former Prime Minister, his wife Daphne Simitis, left, daughters Fiona, center, and Marilena attend the state funeral in Athens' central cathedral, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Relatives and officials attend the state funeral of the late Costas Simitis former Prime Minister of Greece in Athens' central cathedral, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

From left to right Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, Cyprus' President Nikos Christodoulides, Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his wife Mareva Grabowski-Mitsotakis attend the state funeral of the late Costas Simitis former Prime Minister of Greece in Athens' central cathedral, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis delivers a eulogy during the state funeral of the late Costas Simitis former Prime Minister of Greece in Athens' central cathedral, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Pallbearers carry the coffin of former Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis during his state funeral in Athens' central cathedral, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Relatives and officials attend the state funeral of the late Costas Simitis former Prime Minister of Greece in Athens' central cathedral, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Relatives and officials attend the state funeral of the late Costas Simitis former Prime Minister of Greece in Athens' central cathedral, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis pays his respects to the wife Daphne Simitis, left, daughters Fiona, center, and Marilena of the late Costas Simitis former Prime Minister, during the state funeral in Athens' central cathedral, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Pallbearers carry the coffin of former Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis during his state funeral in Athens' central cathedral, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Relatives and officials attend the state funeral of the late Costas Simitis former Prime Minister of Greece in Athens' central cathedral, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

The family of the late Costas Simitis former Prime Minister, his wife Daphne Simitis, fifth left, daughters Fiona, fourth left, and Marilena third left, sit next to the Greek flag-draped casket during the state funeral in Athens' central cathedral, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

FILE - Then Greek Premier Costas Simitis, waves to ruling Socialist party's congress delegates shortly before the start of his speech in Athens on Thursday June 27, 1996. Costas Simitis, a Prime Minister of Greece from 1996 to 2004 and the architect of the country's joining the common European currency, the euro, has died at 88, state TV ERT reports. (AP photo/ Aris Saris, File)

FILE - Greece's Prime Minister Costas Simitis declares a razor-thin victory over conservative opponents following general elections, in Athens on Monday, April 10, 2000. Costas Simitis, a Prime Minister of Greece from 1996 to 2004 and the architect of the country's joining the common European currency, the euro, has died at 88, state TV ERT reports.(AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis, File)

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland's President Andrzej Duda is asking the country's government to ensure that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can attend observances marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz later this month without the risk of being arrested, a Polish presidential aide said Thursday.

Netanyahu became an internationally wanted suspect after the International Criminal Court, the world's top war crimes court, issued an arrest warrant for him and others in connection with the 15-month war in Gaza, accusing them of crimes against humanity.

There have been reports suggesting that the warrant could prevent Netanyahu from traveling to Poland to attend observances marking the anniversary of the liberation in 1945 of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp by Soviet forces on Jan. 27.

Member countries of the ICC, such as Poland, are required to detain suspects facing a warrant if they set foot on their soil, but the court has no way to enforce that. Israel is not a member of the ICC and disputes its jurisdiction.

The court has more than 120 member states, though some countries, including France, have already said that they would not arrest him. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán even said he would defy the warrant by inviting Netanyahu to Hungary.

It was not even clear if Netanyahu wants to attend the event. The Polish Foreign Ministry, in response to an email query, said Thursday that “it has not received any information so far indicating that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is going to attend the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.”

“Poland is a safe country and any leader visiting Poland is entitled to protection granted by the Ministry of the Interior,” it added. The ministry also suggested that any idea that Netanyahu could be arrested in Poland is “fake news" that spread in U.S. media.

The commemoration will be attended by international officials and elderly survivors. It is to take place in Oswiecim, a town that was under German occupation during World War II where the Nazi German forces operated the most notorious of its death camps.

More than 1.1 million people were murdered at Auschwitz. Historians say that most of them, about a million, were Jewish, but the victims also included Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, and others.

Duda has asked the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk to provide Netanyahu with protection from arrest, according to a top Duda aide, Malgorzata Paprocka, according to a report from PAP, the Polish state news agency.

Paprocka said that every Israeli state official and citizen should have the right to take part in the anniversary commemorations, and noted that “all instruments” related to ensuring Netanyahu’s stay in Poland are in the hands of Tusk’s government.

Bloomberg News first reported that Duda sent the request to Tusk by letter.

Paprocka said Duda's office was still waiting for a reply.

FILE - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem, Dec. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, Pool, File)