Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and PASOK party leader Nikos Androulakis will reportedly be among the eulogists at the funeral service on Thursday for two-time premier Costas Simitis, who passed away on Sunday at the age of 88.
The exodios funeral service, as the rite is called in the Greek Orthodox tradition, will take place at the Athens Metropolitan Cathedral in the Greek capital’s center, a short walk from Parliament. Interment will follow at the Athens First Cemetery.
According to reports, a trio of top university professors with whom Simitis enjoyed particularly close academic and political cooperation, including former employment and social security minister Tassos Yiannitsis, will also deliver eulogies.
A book of condolences, meanwhile, was opened at the PASOK party’s headquarters on Charilaou Trikoupi street in downtown Athens, as Simitis was the party’s president from the summer of 1996 to early 2004.
Meanwhile, former prime minister Alexis Tsipras on Tuesday announced that he was positive for the Covid-19 virus and would not attend the funeral.
Simitis was taken by ambulance from his vacation home at the coastal Aghii Theodori township, west of Athens proper, in the early morning hours of Sunday after reportedly losing consciousness. His passing was later confirmed at a nearby hospital in Corinth.
The Piraeus native, a distinguished German-educated academic, appeared in good health prior to Sunday, with media reports claiming he had gone out for dinner with his wife and friends on Saturday evening.
