Theodoros Pangalos, outspoken Greek former foreign minister, dies at 84

By NICHOLAS PAPHITIS
Associated Press

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Former Greek Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos has died at age 84. Pangalos was known for his undiplomatic outbursts and on whose watch Greece suffered one of its most embarrassing foreign policy debacles in 1999. Pangalos’ family said on Twitter that he died peacefully at home Wednesday. Caretaker Prime Minister Ioannis Sarmas’ office expressed condolences as did other leading Greek politicians. Pangalos was born in 1938 and was the grandson of a former military dictator. He became a senior official in the Socialist Pasok party founded by Andreas Papandreou. The party dominated the political scene in most of the 1980s and 1990s. Pangalos was widely reviled during Greece’s financial crisis for claiming that all Greeks were to an extent to blame for the country’s problems.