URGENT-NEW PRIME MINISTER IN GREECE

From: Macedonian Press Agency <mpa@uranus.ee.auth.gr>

Macedonian Press Agency News in English Directory

URGENT BULLETIN BY THE MACEDONIAN PRESS AGENCY

Thessaloniki January 18, 1996

KOSTAS SIMITIS IS THE NEW PRIME MINISTER OF GREECE

Mr. Simitis was elected with 86 votes, while 75 parliament members cast their ballot for the other close contender, Mr. Akis Tsohatzopoulos. Six MPs cast a blank vote.

Immediately after the announcement of the election outcome, mr. Simitis stated that his is not a personal victory, but a victory in the name of unity and for the left-wing prospects.

Mr. Simitis also said that he will personally visit the ailing former Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, who is hospitalized at the Onasion Cardiology Center, in order to announce to him the election outcome. The new Prime Minister added that his relationship with Mr. Papandreou is a deep, political one.

The new Premier's motto is "unity-revival-victory."

The second candidate, Minister of Interior Affairs, Decentralization and Public Administration Akis Tsohatzopoulos, who received warm applause from the MPs when he approached the podium, called the moment a historical one for the country's political history and congratulated the Parliamentary Group for the "exqusitely democratic" manner in which the votes were cast.

Mr. Tsohatzopoulos, who had often substituted the former Premier Mr. Papandreou during the previous two months of the latter's hospitalization, also added that "regardless of the outcome, the party will stay united."

The third candidate for the prime ministerial title was Minister of Defense Gerasimos Arsenis, who congratulated Mr. Simitis on his victory and stated that the party will support the new government in order to lead PASOK to victory in the next elections.

The last to address the parliament members was the fourth candidate Mr. Yiannis Haralambopoulos. He stated that a new page is turned today in the country's political life and said that all those involved with the elections were winners because the democratic procedures were followed to a letter.

Mr. Haralambopoulos predicted that beginning tomorrow, the solemn climate of the recent times will be averted and the greek people will re-gain their confidence.

Kostas Simitis was born in Pireaus on June 26, 1936. He studied Law in Germany and economics in the London School of Economics while in 1965 he returned to Greece. He was one of the founders of the political research group "Alexandros Papanastasiou" and in 1967 the group was transformed into the "Democratic Defence" an organization that was fighting the army colonels of the greek junta.

He escaped abroad in order to avoid being jailed and in 1970 became a member of the Pan-Hellenic Struggle Movement (PAK), while he became a university lecturer in Germany. He returned to Athens in 1974 and was one of PASOK's co-founders while in 1977 he took up a lecturer's post at the Pantion University.

In 1979 he resigned from the party's Executive Bureau in which he was a member since PASOK's founding after a disagreement over a poster with the slogan "in favour of a Europe of the peoples".

In 1981-85 was Minister of Agriculture in the first PASOK government. Immediately afterwards he became Minister of National Economy and resigned his post in 1987 because he felt that his policies were being undermined. In 1993 he took over the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and in 1995 he resigned from the ministry and the party's Executive Bureau after a disagreement with the Prime Minister. Is being elected Parliament deputy for the prefecture of Pireaus since 1985.

He is married to Daphne Arcadiou and has two daughters.