Investors want proof

The prime minister’s recent tour of businesses and accompanying pro-investment rhetoric certainly comprise a positive development and show that yet another taboo that had prevailed since the restoration of democracy in Greece in the wake of the 1967-73 junta is finally being broken.

The left has always done battle against business and entrepreneurship, and the right has until very recently been too embarrassed to defend it.

But if Greece really is to turn the page, it will take more that words and visits by the premier, as no investor, Greek or foreign, who is still being stalled and brushed off by ministers, deputy ministers, general secretaries and all sorts of state services is convinced yet that the tide is truly changing.

These investors need hard evidence, particularly the dismissal of those government officials who have actively gone against everything Alexis Tsipras is now promising.