Theodoros Pangalos, outspoken Greek former foreign minister, dies at 84
Pangalos’ family said on Twitter that he died on Wednesday “peacefully at home, surrounded by his family and close associates.”
Caretaker Prime Minister Ioannis Sarmas’ office expressed condolences, as did other leading Greek politicians. A statement from Sarmas’ office praised the “dynamic and decisive” former minister who stood out for his “sharp and substantial intellect.”
Born on August 17, 1938, Pangalos was the grandson of a former Greek military dictator. He studied law in Athens and economics in Paris, was involved in left-wing politics and actively opposed the new military regime of 1967-1974.
He became a senior official in the Socialist Pasok party, founded by Andreas Papandreou, that dominated the political scene in most of the 1980s and 1990s, but inherited the country’s financial crisis in 2009 and gradually imploded — together with the public finances.
