Giorgos Papandreou does not regret for taking the decision to announce a referendum in October 2011, as he said in the graduation ceremony of “Hertie School of Governance”, in Berlin, “this was the only certain way to change one ‘s way of thinking and implement drastic reforms. This decision cost me my job, but led to a coalition government and broader cooperation”.

The former Prime Minister addressing to the graduates gave some advice on their career and their moral, while putting the “common good” in the first place.

“Do not hesitate when you will be called to take the most difficult decision of your life. Leave, retire or vote against, if this is for the common good,” he said.

“You have to learn to use properly the power but do not fall in love with it,” said the former prime minister, who during his speech referred to the good and bad times of his course.

“I had a vision, in fact, a dream, but I had also to weigh my options between bankruptcy and exit from the eurozone and cruel, painful adjustment process,” Mr Papandreou said adding that “My choices were between bad and worse” and he advised the graduates not to look for easy and quick solutions as these are rarely exist.

“Do not promise of easy solutions. There are no easy solutions,” he said and went on explaining that even though Greece was saved and the progress it was making was spectacular and Europe had helped for that, EU insisted that austerity measures was the only solution to fix all problems quickly.

Talking about his early years in politics, he spoke of the advice that was given to him to change himself.

“Get to know yourself. Be careful with what you settle for. But if you feel the need to change, to grow, just do it. If, however, your style, your personality, what others consider weakness and defect, is part of your values ​​and choices of your life, it might become your advantage and help you to become a person who will contribute to the change”, Giorgos Papandreou said.