The former President of the Hellenic Republic, Kostis Stefanopoulos, expired at 23:18, at the "Errikos Dunan" Hospital, where he was being treated for pneumonia complications.
He was admitted to the hospital on Thursday, November 17, "with a fever and severe breathing difficulties." The doctors found that he was suffering from "bilateral aspiration pneumonia". His health was already deteriorating and despite intensive treatment, his body did not respond and showed insufficiency of multiple organic systems.
Who was it
He was born in Patras in 1926 and is the son of Dimitrios Stefanopoulos, a lawyer and politician, and Vrissida Filopoulos, the daughter of journalist Konstantinos Filopoulos. On his mother's side, he comes from the old Pratsika paternal family and is the nephew of Andreas, Christos and Koulas Pratsikas as well as Dionysios Tseronis, mayor of Patras. In his youth he was an athlete of swimming and water polo, initially in the independent club Glyfada Swimming Club and from 1949 in Achilleas of Patras.
He studied at the High School of Patras, then studied law at the University of Athens and from 1954 to 1975 practiced law as a member of the Patras Bar Association.
He served as President of the Hellenic Republic from 1995 to 2005, the 6th in a row after the change of government and the restoration of democracy. Previously, he was an MP for Achaia with the EPE (1964–67), New Democracy (1974–85) and DIANA (1985–89), a center-right party he founded and led. From 1974 to 1981 he served successively Minister of Interior (1974–76), Social Services (1976–77) and Prime Minister (1977–81) in the governments of Konstantinos Karamanlis and Georgios Rallis.
His promotion to the top state post was the result of a regular maneuver by Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, who reached an agreement with then-Spring Political President Antonis Samaras to support a joint candidacy to avoid the elections he was seeking. , Miltiadis Evert. During his presidency, Stefanopoulos enjoyed great popularity, as a result of the serious and discreet exercise of his duties, but also the alleviation of political passions in a period of economic growth and prosperity, which allowed political forces to protect the prestige of institutions.
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