Former Greek prime minister Costas Simitis, who held power between 1996 and 2004, is expected to outline his premise that the ongoing and punishing economic crisis in the country has been defined by characteristics of Greece's society as a whole.
Simitis, who will address the LSE's European Institute in London on Friday, will also cite the exacerbating factor of major differences in the development of northern Europe as opposed to the European south -- a leitmotif from his tenure as premier and throughout his long political and academic career.
In a pre-release of some of his lecture's highlights, the veteran social democrat politician underlines that after a painful adjustment program, seven years of recession and three bailouts, 23 percent of Greek GDP evaporated. In a direct criticism of creditors' policies, he said the Greek economy's implosion has been compounded by the fact that a "one-side and austerity-driven fiscal policy did not create conditions for growth".
Any exit from the crisis, Simitis will support, depends on a return to growth and developments in the Eurozone.
