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British Prime Minister Tony Blair (left) greets his Greek counterpart Kostas Simitis at 10 Downing Street in London, on December 15, 2003. [AP]<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Costas Simitis was the antidote to much that preceded him in Greek politics. He was the antithesis of the populism and the melodramatic conflicts that had sometimes gone before him. Lacking the charisma and rhetorical skills of Andreas Papandreou or Konstantinos Mitsotakis, he was awkward making public speeches to large crowds. In contrast to the choreography of \u201cAndreas\u201d in Syntagma, Simitis\u2019 on-stage persona was closer to that of a bank manager called to government. In the context of politics at the time, he appeared \u201cun-Greek\u201d in his style.<\/p>\n
Indeed, it was remarkable that he emerged as PM and leader of PASOK at all. Few would have bet on him doing so against the likes of Akis Tsochatzopoulos and Gerasimos Arsenis, each with a stronger base within the party. Andreas Papandreou had earlier disparagingly told his associates that Simitis was \u201cnot really PASOK.\u201d<\/p>\n
And, yet, Simitis had a wider appeal: attracting those hungry for reform and tired of old ideological confrontations. He redrew the political landscape and his footprint on Greece\u2019s pathway was heavy. History will surely acknowledge that he was one of the most able prime ministers in modern Greek history and that his governments recorded major and lasting achievements. That he did so, with his quiet persona, his modesty, his decency, and his respectful manner to all made his premiership even more remarkable.<\/p>\n
His rise also tells us something important in the changes under way in Greek society at the time. Frustrated by the \u201clarger-than-life\u201d character of his predecessors, voters warmed to the PM who might be seen standing in a queue, with his wife, to enter a cinema in Athens. Simitis appealed across party divides to those yearning for a pragmatic politics and evidence-based policies. And he mostly delivered: Simitis showed that Greece had a reform capacity beyond the expectations of many and that real progress could be made.<\/p>\n
His broad-based appeal, focused on reform, was consistent with his friend Nikiforos Diamandouros\u2019 depiction of progress in Greek history reflecting a struggle over its \u201ccultural dualism.\u201d Simitis reached out to \u201cmodernizers\u201d (reformists, not traditionalists) sometimes beyond PASOK, and fostered a new political generation.<\/p>\n
It would be wrong to dismiss Simitis the politician as a technocrat, lacking in ideology. The Simitis project of \u201cmodernization\u201d was carefully thought through and had depth. Its choices were social democratic in nature. If Andreas\u2019 worldview was laced with the leftist international political economy of Immanuel Wallerstein, Simitis\u2019 project lacked nothing in comparison in its intellectual rigor and sophistication. Andreas spoke of paternalistic capitalism and client nations on the periphery; Simitis sought a Greece placed at the core of a developing European project. The latter narrative has survived more strongly than the former.<\/p>\n
Internationally, Simitis\u2019 project was part of a new, so-called \u201cthird wave\u201d of socialism. He became PM in the same year that Romano Prodi headed his first government in Italy, one year ahead of both Tony Blair in the UK and Lionel Jospin in France, and two years before Gerhard Schroeder became German chancellor. Arguably, Simitis\u2019 reputation in history will be more favorable than any of them.<\/p>\n
Today, Keir Starmer and Olaf Scholz have rekindled this ideological stance. Unlike Simitis and his contemporaries, however, they have not developed as substantive a narrative to explain their political projects, and their profile is less confident and more lightweight as a result. In fairness, they probably face much stronger \u201cculture wars,\u201d with the rise of a populist and nationalist right. The nearest parallel for Simitis was the conflict over the revised \u201cidentity card\u201d issue in 2000, a sensitive matter that he deftly avoided to stop it derailing his wider project.<\/p>\n
Abroad, Simitis raised Greece\u2019s reputation. The plaudits this week from his contemporaries like Tony Blair attest to the respect accorded to him as a politician and a man. Within the European Union, Simitis\u2019 Greece elicited credibility and admiration. He brought fresh thinking and pragmatism to foreign policy issues, as with his handling of the EU\u2019s Helsinki Agreement in 1999.<\/p>\n
Simitis was a proud alumnus of the London School of Economics \u2013 he was a student there in 1963. As PM and after, he joined in the school\u2019s activities in Greece and supported the establishment of the Eleftherios Venizelos Chair and the Hellenic Observatory at the LSE. I was delighted, on behalf of the school, to bestow on him in 2023 an \u201chonorary fellowship,\u201d our highest honor.<\/p>\n
Simitis\u2019 politics still resonate in today\u2019s Greece \u2013 a reference point for struggles on the center-left, but also for reformists across political divides. That we might discuss who is his closest heir \u2013 Nikos Androulakis or Kyriakos Mitsotakis or others \u2013 is testimony to his stature and legacy. And, that we can equate Simitis\u2019 project, so strongly, within a wider European frame is exceptional in the history of the Metapolitefsi.<\/p>\n
Kevin Featherstone is emeritus professor, London School of Economics, and chair of the Anglo-Hellenic League.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n