How can a parliamentarian or a leader in a country say, on the one hand, that we're going to support Greece but at the same time say that Greeks are lazy?

I am proud of being a Greek of the diaspora.

Greece's history in the drachma was an up-and-down history, a roller coaster.

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

Greece has given Europe the opportunity to fix a defect in the euro zone, that is the fact that we did not have a fiscal union. Now steps have been taken to begin that process. And there is more solidarity from nation to nation, and that is a good thing. That has been Greece's gift to Europe.

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

We Greeks want change. We know there are problems in our system. We have great potential but we need to manage our country well. Now that hasn't been done over the last decades. And that is, of course, what we are paying for.