24 Quotes by Antonis Samaras

I do not want Greece to become the negative paradigm for the others - i.e., "make sure you follow exactly what we tell you, otherwise you will be like Greece."

We believe that what they call "Grexit" [a Greek exit from the eurozone] is not an option for us.

We have decreased the salaries of everybody who partakes in politics, from the president to the prime minister to the MPs [members of Parliament]. We have cut expenditures that have to do with parliament. Everybody knows we are serious.

I have always believed that this idea of having a nation go through this very painful five or six years of continuous recession with high unemployment would be detrimental for the economy and the society.

Very serious mistakes were made by previous governments, and Greece was ready to be abandoned by its partners and to leave the eurozone, which would have created total catastrophe.

There are going to be a lot of problems with social cohesion. We are already cutting down everything to the bone. Unless there is light at the end of the tunnel.

We are a pivotal part of the European Union. Any destabilization of Greece would totally rock the boat.

Illegal immigrants are already a very big problem for us. We are already taking big steps to disallow illegal immigrants from coming in.

During the socialist period, the government became too big. That created a crowding-out effect in the private economy, and it gave everybody the need to pay more taxes in order to finance this big government. We are against big government. We want a smaller and more efficient government.