Συνέντευξη Ε. Βενιζέλου στην Guardian

When Evangelos Venizelos, the Greek finance minister, first met his colleagues in Brussels in June the atmosphere was far from congenial. In the post for barely a day, the burly professor of law listened impassively as eurozone finance ministers berated him for the lack of progress Athens had made in reining in its runaway debt.

Greece was all mouth and no action; it was good at passing reforms to modernise its basket case of an economy but then did nothing to....
enforce them.

At the end of the tirade, Venizelos took the stand and promised to deliver.

Two weeks later, at the next gathering of finance ministers, he had overseen passage of a €28bn (£24.4bn) fiscal plan of spending cuts and tax increases and a law accelerating implementation of the measures, and he had kickstarted the biggest privatisation drive in western history.

"We are in the midst of a battle," he says, slumping into a sofa in his sixth-floor office on Syntagma Square, the arena for many of the violent protests that have rocked Greece this summer. "A battle to implement a program of fiscal consolidation … a battle to execute the budget, a battle to enforce privatisations.

"It's very important for us to act on our commitments to the EU and IMF. And, we will be true to our word," adds the minister, who this week told parliament that Greece was in a race against time to render its debt dynamics more sustainable. "We will make a superhuman effort to be true to our word."

As job descriptions go, Venizelos's is not the best: with days that begin with gargantuan amounts of pressure at 6am, end well after midnight and are prone to the moods of merciless markets, there are few who envy him the post. Work, say aides, is what he does to relax.

"Someone has to do the job," says the politician, smiling. He also holds the position of deputy prime minister. "It's my duty to Greece and to Europe to do what I can."

The 53-year-old is visibly pale – in contrast to other overworked Greek cabinet ministers who bear the bronze complexion of those who at least have managed a day or two in the sun – but his efforts appear to be paying off.

Even critics speak of a "new wind" blowing through the finance ministry with Venizelos, one of the country's best orators, being credited for bringing a gravitas to the job that his less communicative predecessor lacked.

Tax evasion – a practice that is as old as the hills and is widely viewed as Greece's biggest problem – will, he says, be dealt with mercilessly. A political heavyweight in the ruling socialist party, Venizelos took Greeks by surprise last week when he announced that a whopping €37bn in accumulated state-owed debt was actually in the hands of fewer than 14,000 individuals.

"He won't be going after the little fish, he'll be going after the big fish and, no matter who, they'll be punished," an aide said