My advice and wish to every woman in my country and in the world is very simple: Do not be afraid to be yourself, to have your dream, your vision, and to go for it. We can achieve a lot if we are sincerely committed to our goals and work hard to realize them.

People trust those leaders who show real results of their work, rather than those who just talk about the results.

From day one, my mantra has been - and will continue to be - that as a government we were there to serve the people, not the other way around.

If there were more women heads of state in the world, the world would be more peaceful and better focused on the improvement of the overall quality of life and welfare.

I never had ambition to become president of the state or to accomplish more than men.

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

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.