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Other ways of cutting the public sector are: Firstly, by establishing new services in the ministries. Most of the existing services were established in the 1970s and 1980s to meet very different needs from today’s. New services mean fewer departments, fewer head offices and offices, i.e. reduced operating costs, because a general manager receives a higher salary, together with the allowances, than one head of department. Since I would like to be specific, I would like to say that when I was Minister of Education I did something similar in a department of the ministry. The decision reached the Supreme Court, but the next government did not continue it. Had it been implemented we would have saved about 600 million per year in operational costs, in the central office alone. It is clear how great the benefit would be if it were to be applied in the 18 ministries and regional administrations.

Secondly, by managing the ministerial property. There are ministries that could be housed in government buildings, even in the premises built for the Olympic Games in 2004, but for many years the preferred option was to rent private buildings, belonging to the party’s friends, against huge rents. This should stop immediately.

Thirdly, by simplifying the administrative processes, i.e. the operating costs of administration, which are huge due to the bureaucracy, which in turn gives rise to corruption and its value is measured in billions of euros. If we simplify the procedure, if we trust the civil servants, if we introduce the principle of personal responsibility of civil servants and establish a stricter criminal justice system for those who do not comply with the law, the financial benefit would be enormous. In parallel, we should finally apply digital control of the administration. I say this because I see that the country is losing EU funds due to the shallow course of action applied by the government and the administration. 17 centres were designed to utilize the funds. They should be united in one and all ministries and departments should use compatible software. This way of working could be useful in almost all areas. Furthermore, the disabled or people from the countryside could work from their homes, not having to move to large urban centres.

Digitization will help simplify bureaucracy. It is absurd to require dozens of documents and signatures to start a company. These things should be abolished, because in addition to the high costs and slow processes, they contribute to the flowering of corruption. These changes could happen very quickly through accurately measured actions and political will, but unfortunately, the government has done nothing in this direction over the past two years and had not even continued what we have started.

How would you comment on the government's decision to entrust waste collection to private companies if municipal officials continue their protests? 

New Democracy in practice is ahead of the events in this case. The law that was passed during our mandate provides the opportunity for mayors, if they so wish, to outsource this service to private companies instead of using municipal employees. Therefore, here we are talking about shared responsibility of government and municipal authorities. I am not against the employees and believe that we should not surprise them, nor change the conditions under which they have decided to fulfil their obligations to the state. Nevertheless, when such a need exists, we should choose more effective means to provide services to suffering society.