Theodoros Katsanvevas, A Dear Friend of the Schiller Institute, Has Passed
Theodoros Katsanevas passed away on May 7 after losing his battle with the Coronavirus. A senior political leader and economist in Greece, Theodoros came into contact with the Schiller Institute in 2012 at the onset of the struggle against the brutal economic and financial policy forced on Greece by the EU during the financial crisis of the last decade. He addressed several SI conferences, signed SI petitions and took part in other initiatives. He also participated in an effort to establish a Schiller Institute in Greece, which had to be postponed because of the pandemic.
Born in 1947, Theodoros Katsanevas was a political fighter from his days as a student against the military junta that ruled Greece between 1967 and 1974. After the restoration of democracy in 1975, he became one of the historic founders of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement, the party founded and led by Andreas Papandreou. He played a leading role in that party’s reform program and served as one of its members of parliament from 1989 to 2004. After 2004 he returned to the University of Piraeus where he was a Professor of labor economics.
The financial crisis of 2010 and the government’s failure to fight against the EU’s policy, brought him back into the political arena. In May 2013, he founded the Drachma Party, which called for Greece to withdraw from the Eurozone and re-establish the drachma as the countries currency, in order to win back is sovereignty over economic policy. Fully supporting LaRouche’s Four Laws, he incorporated them, in particular the implementation of Glass-Steagall banking separation, into the Drachma Party program.
Unfortunately his party did not pass the 3% margin necessary to enter the parliament, nonetheless he continued his political activities and the fight for Greece to regain its economic sovereignty.