Greece closer to E.U. with Simitis' election

ATHENS, APRIL. 10. Mr. Costas Simitis, who won a second mandate as the Greek Prime Minister yesterday, is a tested leader who brought Greece to the brink of joining Europe's monetary union and improved relations with arch-rival Turkey.

Slight of build and seemingly shy, Mr. Simitis, 64, is a methodical worker who changed the face of his Pasok party from a die-hard socialist group in the 1980s to a market-oriented centrist party. In his first term as Prime Minister he managed to slash towering State debts and double-digit inflation, all-but officially securing Greece's participation in the eurozone as of January next year.

The tasks before Mr. Simitis remain large. For the next four years he has promised 300,000 new jobs and growth rates of about four per cent to be met through a bold privatisation programme in telecommunications, energy and banking. A German- and British- trained economist and university professor, Mr. Simitis succeeded the ailing party founder and three-time Premier Andreas Papandreou in January 1996. He swept to power eight months later in elections with a comfortable margin over the new democracy conservatives. Unpretentious but self-confident, he dislikes the flamboyant style of traditional Greek political leaders and is said to treat his Ministers like students, praising them for doing their work or criticising them for failure.

``During Cabinet meetings he often tells a Minister that his work is below expectations. He demands progress reports and sets deadlines. If a target is met he grins with satisfaction and moves along to another issue,'' a top Simitis aide told Reuters. Greece no longer E.U's black sheep under his leadership. It shed its image as the black sheep of the European Union, largely created by Papandreou's anti-Western populism, which alienated allies. His own style is dry. He is a private man, who rarely drinks alcohol, enjoys theatre and cinema but mostly prefers to stay home after work with a good book. ``My dream is to get Greece out of the Balkan misery and make it part of the developed group of European nations. In my first term we took the first steps but there is much more that needs to be done,'' he said in television interview before the elections.

Mr. Simitis is the son of a Piraeus lawyer and grew up in a well- off, progressive family, where the first seeds of his leftist views were sown. He left home at 18 to study law and economics in Germany and did post-graduate work at the London School of Economics. He has worked as a lawyer and also taught law and economics in Germany. Simitis opposed the military junta which seized power in 1967 and was a founding member of Papandreou's Pasok when the regime fell in 1974. During the junta, Mr. Simitis escaped to Germany on a false passport while his wife was arrested and put in isolation. He was convicted in absentia for his opposition to the dictators.

- Reuters

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