Death of Karolos Papoulias, former Greek President

While the Greeks, hit hard by austerity, had nothing to give to the creditors of the EU and the IMF, he is one of the first politicians to abandon his salary in solidarity ” to the sacrifices of the people “.

Le Monde with AFP

Karolos Papoulias, President of the Hellenic Republic of 2005 to 2015, died, Sunday, December 26, at the age of 92, announced the Greek Presidency.

“With sadness, we send our last greetings to Karolos Papoulias,” said the Greek president, Katerina Sakellaroopoulou. “He honored by his ethics and his behavior the highest state institution, defending social cohesion and national unity”, added.

from the ranks of the Socialist Party Pasok, Karolos Papoulias was first elected President in 2005, before being re-elected for a second five-year term in 2010, at the beginning of the Greek crisis, which plunged the country In the most serious political and economic turmoil of recent decades. He was then confronted with the anger of the Greeks and his popularity suffered a fatal blow for his support for austerity, dictated by the EU and the IMF.

In October 2012, Greece was in the grip of a spiral of the debt crisis and unpopular salary reductions. Protesters had blocked a national parade in Thessaloniki and punctuate “traitor” at the passage of President Papoulias, then 83 years old.

Before leaving the parade with spite, the latter had not failed to deliver the bottom of his thought to the media and the chautors. “We fought for Greece. I was a 15-year-old resistance fighter, fighting Nazism and the Germans,” said the head of state, whose father was a senior officer of the army who had also fought for Greece. He was one of the first politicians to abandon his salary in solidarity “with the sacrifices of the people”.

One of the co-founders of Pasok

Born in Ioannina, on June 4, 1929, he was active in Antinazie Resistance from 1942 to 1944, when he was only adolescent. It was then a high-level athlete, National Perche Jumping Champion and member of the National Volleyball Team.

/Media reports.