When I was growing up in the United States and Sweden, I never thought about becoming a politician.

At times of distress, we all like to recall the advice of fathers and mothers. The best advice my father gave me was to keep faith and deep confidence in the potential of the Greek people; nurture the belief that they can do things.

People would say you look weak if you're not cursing the opposition and driving around in a big black car while always wearing a tie. Above all, to be 'strong' you're always supposed to be giving orders.

This is global governance in the making. But we must agree, and agree to a binding commitment.

The real problem in Greece is not cutting taxes, it's making sure that we don't have tax evasion.

I can officially state that my government and myself believe that all over Europe we need to open a debate on the 'drug question' in order to create more coherent and human policies with better perspectives. . . . The policy of criminalizing consumers has failed, creating many problems to our society.

I will always be upfront with the Greek people, so we can solve the country's problems together.