Climate protesters turn out as Europe votes on parliament

Protesters are holding rallies in several European Union countries to demand tougher action against global warming, as the 28-nation bloc votes to fill the European Parliament.

Thousands attended a rally Friday in Berlin, where mostly young people waved banners with slogans such as "There is no planet B" or "Plant trees, save the bees, clean the seas."

Many protesters will be too young to vote when Germans cast ballots Sunday in the European Parliament election, but are pressing family and older friends to consider the world's long-term future.

Young demonstrators take part in a demonstration organised by 'Global Strike 4 Climate' beneath the Monument of the Unknown Soldier, in Rome, Friday, May 24, 2019. (Maurizio BrambattiANSA via AP)

Clara Kirchhoff said the election for the EU's 751-seat assembly was particularly important for tackling climate change on a continental level.

The 17-year-old says "there's no point in Germany doing a lot for the climate and others not pulling their weight."

Young demonstrators take part in a demonstration organised by 'Global Strike 4 Climate' beneath the Monument of the Unknown Soldier, in Rome, Friday, May 24, 2019. (Maurizio BrambattiANSA via AP)

A toy monkey wears a banner as young demonstrators take part in a demonstration organised by 'Global Strike 4 Climate' in Parliament Square in London, Friday, May 24, 2019. (AP PhotoKirsty Wigglesworth)

Young demonstrators take part in a demonstration organised by 'Global Strike 4 Climate' near Parliament in London, Friday, May 24, 2019. (AP PhotoKirsty Wigglesworth)

Young demonstrators take part in a demonstration organised by 'Global Strike 4 Climate' near Parliament in London, Friday, May 24, 2019. (AP PhotoKirsty Wigglesworth)

Young protestors hold a sign reading 'vote for the planet because your kids can't' ahead of the European elections during a climate strike of school students as part of the Fridays for Future movement in Frankfurt, Germany, Friday, May 24, 2019. (Boris Roesslerdpa via AP)

A protestor holds a symbolic earth in his hand during a climate strike of school students as part of the Fridays for Future movements Muenster, Germany, Friday, March 24, 2019. (Guido Kirchnerdpa via AP)

Young demonstrators take part in a demonstration organised by 'Global Strike 4 Climate' in Parliament Square in London, Friday, May 24, 2019. (AP PhotoKirsty Wigglesworth)

Young climate activists demonstrate in front of the Finnish Parliament building in Helsinki, Finland, Friday May 24, 2019, a global day of student protests aiming to spark world leaders into action on climate change. (Vesa MoilanenLehtikuva via AP)

Thousands of students demonstrate front of the Credit Suisse bank during a « Climate strike » protest in Lausanne, Switzerland, Friday, May 24, 2019. Students from several countries worldwide plan to skip class Friday in protest over their governments' failure to act against global warming. (Jean-Christophe BottKeystone via AP)

People take part in the demonstration Global Strike for Climate, in Stockholm, Sweden, Friday, May 24, 2019. (Janerik HenrikssonTT News Agency via AP)

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg takes part in the demonstration Global Strike for Climate, in Stockholm, Sweden, Friday, May 24, 2019. (Janerik HenrikssonTT News Agency via AP)

A young protestor takes part in a demonstration organised by 'Global Strike 4 Climate' in Parliament Square in London, Friday, May 24, 2019. (AP PhotoKirsty Wigglesworth)

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Former Cypriot President George Vassiliou, a successful businessman who helped to energize his divided island's economy and set it on the road to European Union membership, has died. He was 94.

Vassiliou died Wednesday after being hospitalized on Jan. 6 for a respiratory infection. Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides praised Vassiliou as a leader who became synonymous with the country's economic prosperity, social progress and push toward modernization.

“Cyprus has lost a universal citizen who broadened our homeland's international imprint,” Christodoulides said in a written statement.

His wife Androulla, a lawyer who twice served as a European commissioner, posted on X in the early hours Wednesday that her companion of 59 years “slipped away quietly in our arms” in hospital.

“It's difficult to say farewell to a man who was a superb husband and father, a man full of kindness and love for the country and its people,” she wrote.

When he became president in 1988, Vassiliou lifted hopes that a peace deal with the island's breakaway Turkish Cypriots was possible after more than a decade of off-again, on-again talks. He swiftly relaunched stalled reunification negotiations with Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, but they ended at an impasse that continues today.

Cyprus was split into an internationally recognized Greek-speaking south and a Turkish-speaking north in 1974, when Turkey invaded the island after a coup aimed at uniting it with Greece. A Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence nine years later was recognized only by Turkey.

During an interview in 1989, one year into his five-year term as president, Vassiliou said: "The only dangerous thing for the Cyprus issue is to remain ... in a vacuum, forgotten and with no one taking any interest."

But Vassiliou succeeded on many other fronts, using his skills as a successful entrepreneur to modernize and expand his county’s economy, even though he had been raised by parents who were pro-communist.

Vassiliou was born in Cyprus in 1931 to two doctors who were activists and volunteered their services to the communist forces during the civil war that engulfed Greece in the immediate aftermath of World War II.

With the defeat of the communists in Greece in 1949, the Vassiliou family moved to Hungary and later Uzbekistan.

George Vassiliou initially studied medicine in Geneva and Vienna, but he later switched to economics, earning a doctorate from the University of Economics in Budapest.

After a brief stint doing marketing in London, Vassiliou returned to Cyprus in 1962, and he began a successful business career that made him a millionaire. He founded the Middle East Market Research Bureau, a consultancy business that grew to have offices in 30 countries in the Middle East, South Africa, eastern and central Europe.

In 1987, Vassilou was elected president of Cyprus as an independent entrepreneur who also was supported by the island's powerful communist party AKEL, which his father had one been a prominent member of.

Vassiliou bucked the staid political culture of the time by making the presidency more accessible to the public and visiting government offices and schools. That prompted some criticism that he was turning the presidency into a marketing pulpit.

"I consider it the president’s obligation to come in contact with the civil service," Vassiliou told Greek state TV. "I call this communication with youth. Some call it marketing. ... I call it the proper execution of the president's mission."

He also pushed through key reforms, including imposing a sales tax while slashing income taxes, streamlining a cumbersome civil service, establishing the first Cyprus university, and abolishing a state monopoly in electronic media. To make sure the world better understood the Cyprus peace process, he widely expanded a network of press offices at Cypriot diplomatic missions.

Through his tenure, the island's per capita gross domestic product almost doubled, culminating in possibly his most notable achievement as president — applying for full membership to the European Union, a goal achieved 13 years later.

Vassiliou lost the presidency in 1993 to Glafcos Clerides, who appointed his rival as Cyprus' chief negotiator with the EU in 1998. A decade later, Vassiliou headed a Greek Cypriot team negotiating EU matters during reunification talks. He remained politically active, founding a party of his own and being elected to the Cypriot legislature in 1996.

He authored several books on EU issues and Cypriot politics; was a member of several international bodies, including the Shimon Peres Institute of Peace; and received honors and decorations from countries such as France, Italy, Austria, Portugal and Egypt.

Apart from his wife, Vassiliou is also survived by two daughters and a son.

FILE -Democratic Presidential Candidate Bill Clinton, left, meets with President George Vassiliou of Cyprus at New York's Waldorf-Astoria hotel, Aug. 9, 1992. (AP Photo/Mario Cabrera, File)

FILE -Cyprus President George Vassiliou, left, smiles as his son Evelthon, 17, is introduced to the daughter of Massachusetts Governor and Democratic presidential nominee Michael S. Dukakis, Kara, 19, at the Statehouse in Boston on Aug. 3, 1988 as Dukakis, second from right looks on, during a visit by the Cyprus President to Boston. (AP Photo/Carol Francavilla, File)