Simitis' reputation was marked when he became Minister of National Economy in 1985 when PASOK's profligacy needed a new financial 'stability' imposed through an economic adjustment programme.

The successful completion of the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics also boosted Greece's positive image as a modern state capable of undertaking sophisticated tasks.

Simitis fled abroad after planting bombs in the streets of Athens (in later years, he acknowledged his activities on the Greek MEGA TV channel) in order to avoid being jailed and became a member of the Panhellenic Liberation Movement (PAK), led by Andreas Papandreou.

Although he is widely respected throughout Europe,[citation needed] in Greece, Simitis was regarded by some Greeks as a rather dull technocrat, lacking the charisma of Papandreou.

On 7 January 2004, with PASOK's popularity collapsing, Simitis announced that he would resign as party president and would not stand for re-election as Prime Minister in the forthcoming legislative elections.

Despite Papandreou's personal popularity, PASOK lost the 7 March elections to the conservative New Democracy party, whose leader Kostas Karamanlis succeeded Simitis in the office of Prime Minister.

After the 2004 electoral defeat, Simitis remained a Member of the Hellenic Parliament for Piraeus, sitting on the Standing Committee on National Defence and Foreign Affairs.

Though never formally excluded from the party, he kept his distance with the leadership and could not come to terms with Papandreou in time to be a candidate for the 2009 elections, upon which he definitively left his MP seat for Piraeus.

Before his departure, he warned of financial mismanagement that would lead to a harsh austerity regime in Greece imposed by the International Monetary Fund, which eventually came the following year.

[8] The government declared four days of official mourning and accorded Simitis a state funeral,[4] which was held at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens on 9 January.

"[11] Law 2874/2000 on 'Employment regulations and other provisions,' in addition to working time arrangements, " regulates a range of important issues relating to labour relations, such as overtime, redundancies and matters involving leave," while Law 2839/2000 on 'Regulation of matters regarding the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Public Administration and Decentralisation and other provisions' established a gender quota system in the public sector's various governing councils, administrative boards and collective bodies.

[13] Simitis is known mainly in Greece for his political philosophy, known as Eksynchronismos ("Modernization"), which focused on extensive public investment and infrastructure works as well as economic and labor reforms.

Faced with the government's robust but unpopular stance, he organized two massive demonstrations in Athens and Thessaloniki alongside a majority of bishops of the Church of Greece.

However, the inclusion of religious beliefs on ID cards, even on a voluntary basis, as the Church had asked, was deemed unconstitutional by the Greek courts.

In 1996, the appointment of the PASOK-leaning To Vima newspaper editor, Stavros Psycharis, as political administrator of Mount Athos was particularly criticized by the opposition.

Siemens CEO Michalis Christoforakos testified that during his trial in Germany, he bribed (2%) both the two major political parties, ND and PASOK (through Geitonas and Tsoukatos, partner of Kostas Simitis).

Since 2005, Eurostat changed its rules and records the defense expenditures according to the delivery date for all the countries of the EU, including Greece.

[18][19] Other points of criticism included the 1999 Greek stock market crash in the Athens Exchange, such as his handling on the Abdullah Öcalan's capture and the Imia incident regarding the foreign relations with Turkey.