Tasos Giannitsis

It took 16 years before Greece could allow the establishment of private universities. We could have had them since 2007 when the then conservative premier Kostas Karamanlis proposed a change to Article 16 of the Constitution, but he was not able to secure the consent of PASOK leader George Papandreou.

Every effort to resolve the problems of Greece's insurance system was met with the intense opposition of trade unions and opposition parties.

Pressurised by strong social reactions and fearing the political cost successive Greek governments kicked the can down the road and avoided grappling with the issue in a substantial and timely manner.