The examples of female success stories are important on the global scale, as they help to disseminate the idea of gender equality and to spread the roots for the actual implementation of equal rights for women and men and democratic values among different cultures, societies and traditions.

Women have more inner power for creation, starting from family and home and ending with professional activity and politics.

I ran for president because I wanted to help Lithuania and its people during a difficult time. My country was on the very edge of an economic crisis, and people were disappointed by the economic situation and the political elite. We all needed change and motivation to consolidate our efforts in order to overcome the difficulties.

I am a person of action. If I see I can bring a positive change, I will go for it, never mind that something might be hard to achieve.

Some countries need extra stimulus in specific areas. Something has to be done against high youth unemployment in Greece and Spain, for example. But in the end, there is no way around it: The debt levels have to come down.

While I am a lawyer by profession and have travelled to several countries, working and educating myself, I came from a rural background in a Third World country at a time when women were told what their place was and whose mothers enjoyed even less.

I don't subscribe to that school of thought that leadership can be altogether defined by gender.