Funeral service of former president held in Athens
The funeral service of the former president Karolos Papoulias took place with full state honors on Wednesday at the Church of Agios Spyridonas in Pangrati, Athens.
Papoulias died early last Sunday (Dec. 26) at the age of 92.
Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras, KINAL leader Nikos Androulakis and Communist Party leader Dimitris Koutsoumbas, along with other officials attended the service.
“Today we say goodbye to a faithful and unyielding servant of our country. The nobleman from Epirus, who was never tempted by the trappings of power,” Skellaropoulou said delivering the eulogy.
“His commitment to national interests had been stable and experiential. He marched through politics with the distanced devotion that gave him the great advantage of clearly distinguishing the big picture in diplomacy and the path of the country.”
Papoulias served in the largely ceremonial office for two terms, from 2005 to 2015. One of the founding members of the socialist PASOK party, he was its foreign minister in 1985-89 and 1993-96, and served as MP for his native Ioannina for 26 years.
He “vigorously defended social cohesion and national unity,” Sakellaropoulou said on his passing, noting his role in the fight against the WWII Nazi occupation and the 1967-74 junta.
Papoulias will be interred in the city of Ioannina on Thursday.
