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A Mitsotakis is bound to have a Marshall scepter with him and yet. The son of Konstantinos Mitsotakis, former prime minister of Greece and Honorary President of New Democracy, talks with Victoria Mindova about his political ambitions, the economic crisis and the green technologies without hiding his bitterness and his hopes.

You have graduated at the best universities in the world (Harvard and Stanford University) and you could work anywhere. Why did you come back in Greece and what was the main reason to engage in politics except for heredity you obviously carry?

I have lived outside Greece many years and it is a fact that my education and work allow me to have a very good career abroad. I decided to go back to Greece and engage with politics because I believed and still believe, as romantic it may sound, that if we ourselves do not get down to work to change the things we do not like in our own country no one else would do it. I am tired of people who only criticize and when they are asked to change something they disappear.

Unfortunately, we are a country where self-interest reigns over the common one. We can not easily sacrifice some of our own goods so as to serve the common interest. My choice to become a politician was precisely determined by the need for change and this in no way means that it is the only career choice that I have. Availability of alternatives enables me to move more freely in today's world and to do the things the way I believe is right.

A Mitsotakis is bound to have the Marshall scepter with him. What are your political ambitions and where do you see your political future - in New Democracy, in Dora Bakoyannis’ party or somewhere else?

I choose to stay in the ranks of New Democracy that elected me a parliament member and honoured me with its confidence and entrusted me with certain tasks. I want to be a part of the party improvement and I think I have something to give in this fight. My goals are not linked to any particular post that I want to reach by all means. Actually, I want my conscience to be calm, which is not always easy in politics. I want to be calm when I go to bed at night and when I get up in the morning. My goals begin and end with me being as better as possible at what I am doing. The throne is not an end. It is important to give the best of yourself.

Yes, but the higher position gives greater opportunity to make changes where you deem necessary so that things go in the right direction.

The position could allow making changes in certain things to a greater degree but we must not underestimate the power of political speech, the power to influence through the speech that shapes the views and perceptions of the surrounding world. If all the people at different posts in Greece were giving the best of themselves, we would have miracles here.

I am currently responsible for environmental issues – an issue I have been dealing with for a long time. In this position I fight the party to obtain a more up-to-date platform on environment protection issues. I fight on another field at the same time. It is quite broad and is within the public activity I am engaged in. There I turn to all who want to listen to me to convince them that we could change for the better and  that we should not always fear changes if we have a clear purpose. In the short term, this change may seem painful, but it will allow releasing much of the Greek economy so as to turn our country into a better place to live, for ourselves and our children.

As I understand, you are talking about the so-called green economy. The term has become very popular in recent years. Could you explain what it actually means?

Your question is correct, because everyone could have their own interpretation of the term green economy. For me personally this is any business that uses natural advantages and protects the environment. This could be the utilization of renewable energy sources or more efficient waste management, application of new technologies that are saving energy - it is a fairly wide range of activities, which is based on the logic that our planet has limited natural sources of energy which we should exploit better. Their more effective use creates many new opportunities for economic activity. That is how I understand the green economy.

What is the role of the state in the catalytic processes for implementation of green practices?

The state plays a key role by placing a framework of incentives and disincentives, which outlines the direction of the local economy. This could be done by adjusting the prices at which electricity is sold. They will in turn determine the development of the energy market - if there are sufficient incentives to the type of production the investment will be directed that way. This is not enough, of course. It takes a more serious overall investments policy that will facilitate business and entrepreneurship at the state level. This is a problem that now faces Greece - how to make the country more attractive for investments.

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.

I would like you to answer a question of mine that have been troubling me more than a year. When it became clear that New Democracy has decided to call early parliamentary elections, why did it choose to enter the race with the same party leader (Costas Karamanlis), who left no alternative to his party colleagues?

I am not sure I am the right person to answer that question. The only thing I can say is that I was strongly against the idea of early elections. I believed and still believe that New Democracy had to fight to the end to introduce the necessary reforms even if it meant it would lose the next parliamentary elections. I did not like at all the idea of a party hoisting the white flag in this way. To go to elections to lose them is beyond my logic. I say to lose these elections because it was perfectly clear from the moment they were announced. When we make mistakes, we have to admit them to ourselves first and then to respect the vote of the people who voted and to do whatever we can to correct these mistakes.

The new budget is already in Parliament. It is clear that 2011 will be another tough year for the Greek economy - the deficit should be reduced by five billion euros and the government is taking measures for 14.3 billion euros. Do you think we could do without the Memorandum of financial support?

I think that we could do without the Memorandum if pretty much wrong steps were not taken between October 2009 and April 2010 that brought us to the contract which we eventually signed this spring. I do not think the government itself knew what it signed at that time, which is proved by the subsequent phenomenon that individual ministers who have also signed the Memorandum of financial support do not want to put into practice what is agreed in it.

There are parts of the Memorandum that are in the right direction and others that are not. I think the budget for 2010 contains many of the stereotypes that brought us to the impasse we are today. For example, the fact that much of the budget revenues rely on indirect taxes but their collection do not bring the expected results. Another weakness is costs reduction which also lacks clarity on where the reductions will come. Our tax policy needs to be very seriously revised. I definitely think that the state's role should be reduced, but at the same time if we do not minimize tax evasion, which have taken monstrous size, we can never fix our home finance.

But I do not see the government to handle all these tasks. I think the Council of Ministers needs a very strict minister in tax matters, to deal exclusively with tax revenues and tax system reform. Because if you do not apply a constant and highly professional oversight of the revenue policy of the country we will be chasing targets but will never achieve them. Revenues will never be enough which will lead to a new increase in taxes to collect the missing of those who pay anyway. These increases will in turn lead to a deepening recession and so the vicious circle of crisis will be closed. I think that generally the budget for 2011, although there are some very promising measures to reduce government spending, will depend entirely on the ability of government to collect revenue. And because the state failed to do this effectively in the past 30 years under the plan, which it sets in the beginning of each year, I do not think it will do it in 2011.

It was announced the last week that uncollectible revenues in Greece for 2009 amount to around 36 billion euros. Is this what you are referring to?

Yes, that’s right. These are the 35 billion euros that George Papandreou tried to find before the parliamentary elections but now he knows that they are not so easy to be collected.

What do you think about the policy followed by the present Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Change Tina Birbili?

I stand well with Minister Tina Birbili - I respect and value her. However, I disagree with some of the initiatives she has undertaken, but in general I can say I'm not afraid to support those decisions of hers that I think are correct. We have to admit she is brave as politician. Perhaps this is due to the fact that she has not been highly politicized before taking this post, which is apparent at certain points.

Many experts in the field agree that eco-friendly technologies are impossible to be developed and implemented on a large scale unless green power is profitable (more effective and cheaper). Do you agree with this statement?

It is relative that energy produced from alternative sources is more expensive. The energy produced from lignite coals, which contribute most to environmental pollution, at today's prices seems cheaper than that produced by wind power. If, however, we take into account all the environmental consequences of the use of lignite coals as well as the amount that a company has to pay to use this fuel, the price of energy produced raises immediately.

Do you mean the climate targets set by the European Union 20/20/20 to reduce the emission of harmful gases in the atmosphere?

Yes and the more we develop new technologies, the more the price of energy produced from renewable sources will decline. There is already a difference in the price of energy produced from wind power, unlike that produced from sunlight. It is important to take this into account. Personally I believe that many of the technologies for producing energy from alternative sources soon will be extremely competitive on energy markets, particularly if oil prices remain at high levels.