On the return of the troika review team
“First of all let me say something – let's do away with this notion that we are in some kind of war..It is a negotiation.”
On gaining the trust of young Greeks with limited job prospects
“What I can promise him is that we will have free wi-fi Internet across Greece in a year.”
On the recent killings of two young men outside a Golden Dawn office in Athens
“I won’t allow for Democracy to succumb to criminal violence.”
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“There must be stability and unity and Greeks must have confidence in their country and foreigners [must have confidence] in Greece.”
“By God, we are not on the brink of civil war, we Greeks are united against violence.”
“Whoever does not show that they will do anything to avoid such phenomena in the future, will be punished by the people. The people will be merciless against them.”
“We can’t have MPs who enter the temple of democracy and say that they feel disgust.” (in reference to jailed Golden Dawn leader Nikos Michaloliakos)
“Nazism does not have any roots in Greece. It is a reaction to how difficult life is for people. Once unemployment falls, this phenomenon will vanish.”
On the state's balance sheet
“My feeling is that we will have this surplus. We succeeded in the impossible. The troika came in July and told us that there is no fiscal problem in 2014. Now it says there is one.”
“I understand that [our] creditors choose the worst case scenario. We told them that we cancelled cuts and found new funds that have to do with restoring the fiscal health of state social security funds.”
“Elections will be held in four years. The only ones who do not agree do not want to see the country on steady ground.”
“Each and every troika and every foreigner must respect the sacrifices that have taken place.”
On taxation
“Society has exhausted its limits on taxes, except for tax dodgers, of course, and with them, I don’t know how much their number has decreased, but this is not the issue.”
“Indeed, 2013 is the worst year that the [average] Greek has ever known, I can’t put it more bluntly…We had [to pay] income tax from 2012, property taxes from 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013, we had the emergency property tax [EETHDE]. This is not going to return.”
On finance minister Yannis Stournaras
“He talks directly, does not hide things, does not hide [behind things]. and I believe that Stournaras these 15 months helped very much and we turned the boat around. I believe that he has made his mark because he is the type of person who by his constitution does not take into account the political cost. I support him. And [deputy prime minister and PASOK leader] Venizelos supports him.”
On main opposition leader Alexis Tsipras
“Tsipras is fighting a battle for us not to come out of the crisis. He does not accept there is a primary surplus, he threatens investors, in other words he is killing the economy.”
“No one was ever elected prime minister by wishing for his country to fail. Because the country failing is his route to winning. In my view, he does not support a ‘Greece for the Greeks’, like Andreas [Papandreou] said. He supports a Greece for illegal migrants.”