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I should mention here that Greece is not the most attractive country for foreign investment right now. The law on fast track investments was voted recently. What are the weaknesses of this law and what do you think could be further done to attract fresh money to the local economy?

We need to overall change our understanding of how to look at the private sector. We are accustomed that the state should initiate the economic growth and the private sector got used to it too. This model of economic development completed its cycle. Now we need to support healthy businesses, giving them the opportunity to invest in sectors which have an obvious advantage: tourism, the possibility of producing energy from alternative sources, services, better utilization of human resources in the country, etc.

We should be impartial – we will never become a country with developed heavy industry and mass production for export to international markets. However, all sectors that are associated with environment protection and development of friendly environmental economic activities could be successfully developed in Greece. Fiscal security, tax system stable and friendly to the business, reduced bureaucracy and more clearly defined role of the state are necessary for this as well as for turning Greece into an investment destination again.
 
When will this happen, according to you?

I want Greece to become an attractive country for investors as quickly as possible but the government continues to move very slowly in that direction.

Would you, however, make an assessment based on the current development of the Greek economy?

Pressure is exercised on our country to carry out some of the reforms related to improving the business climate. But they had to be made many years ago. I am not sure, however, that PASOK is able to implement them. I see powers inside the Socialist Party that want to preserve the old structure and the known type of economic management that resulted in today's situation.

If we consider the forces within the party structures, we are not to omit the fact that both PASOK and New Democracy are having problems with the changes Greece is going through now. You are the new generation of politicians who have new ideas on economy and politics. What should happen in order the two political forces in the country to change basically and even to become more modern?

Both parties are already tired. Both parties are obliged to change a lot faster and realize that society is much more forward in its understanding and expectations related to PASOK and New Democracy.

We in New Democracy went through a very dramatic process in which we lost the election by a margin of 10 points which is a huge difference. Then we changed the party's leader and we are currently trying to get back on the right path. We already made some strides in the right direction but we still have a lot to do. We hear the new voices in the party but they have to become stronger. Our generation of politicians, at the age of 40, has to conquer a stronger position in the ranks of New Democracy and it depends largely on us. Always with the aim to make the party more reliable and better.

How would you comment on the loss of New Democracy in Athens, Thessaloniki, Attica and the Peloponnese? Athens, for example, has always been blue.

Maybe that's why we lost the elections in the capital - because Athens was blue in the last 24 years and it is time for a change. When the same party has been winning the local elections for so long it gets tired or, to say, worn out. I find the appearance of George Kaminis and Yannis Boutaris in their roles of mayors respectively of Athens and Thessaloniki an interesting twist. They are individuals not from the usual political system. It seems they have good intentions and I would like to believe personally that they would change many of the things we do not like in both cities today. Of course, their work will be assessed in the course. By no means am I against any attempt of the political system to expand its horizons and add people of different curriculum vitae to the system. I find this an extremely positive example and most likely we in New Democracy must draw the lessons from the mayoral elections results in Athens and Thessaloniki on how to open our doors for valuable people not only from the narrow circle of the party known until now.

If I get it right, the results of mayoral elections in early November this year allowed the forces in New Democracy to regroup?

Yes, you can definitely say so. We had a lead and did well in the first elections round. We didn’t perform as we expected in the runoff in the big cities but we still covered a significant difference that separated us from PASOK after the last parliamentary elections. More than a year ago we were the first party only in six out of the 52 electoral regions but this November we were the first party in 32 of those 52 electoral regions. This is not enough, of course. We have to overcome our poor background to convince voters that we can rule this country. I say this because New Democracy was formed to be the ruling party and must always aim at the government.