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We Greeks want change. We know there are problems in our system. We have great potential but we need to manage our country well. Now that hasn't been done over the last decades. And that is, of course, what we are paying for.

I will always be upfront with the Greek people, so we can solve the country's problems together.

How can a parliamentarian or a leader in a country say, on the one hand, that we're going to support Greece but at the same time say that Greeks are lazy?

Greeks have always been very confident, very strong people. That is - that is our real, I guess, benefit, is that we are independent thinkers. We will always get up on our feet. We - we sometimes act the best when we are downtrodden.

As long as I feel I am doing what I think is right and just for my country, for the Greek people, that is enough for me. Saving Greece from this crisis was the first thing on the agenda. We are now on a much more normalised road.

Many people have been pontificating, and patronizing, and moralizing, and scapegoating, saying you Greeks, you are the problem. I would say we Greeks have a problem. We are not the problem.

We're on our way to Greece, in the hands of a confused, foolish government. It's got to stop. It's got to stop.

Politics also means educating people. It's important to speak openly with our fellow Greeks, to tell them what our problems are and that we have to change something.

We have a rise of extremism because we need to give a sense that we are targeting some of the deeper problems in Greece, the injustices.

I am personally convinced - and I think the Greek people share this belief in a fundamental way - that we can achieve fiscal consolidation more effectively and we can restore competitiveness in a more fundamental and permanent way within the euro area than outside.