ATHENS, September 6 (RIA Novosti) - The Greek prime minister told journalists in Thessaloniki on Sunday that he will not resign from the post of the conservative New Democracy Party leader even if the party loses the October 4 parliamentary election.
"I will not resign. I will be on the front line of the struggle until I feel the country needs me," Kostas Karamanlis said.
Opinion polls say Karamanlis' party is lagging behind the opposition PASOK Party (Panhellenic Socialist Movement), to which President Karolos Papoulias belongs. PASOK leader George Papandreou said earlier his party is confident of victory.
The prime minister said earlier he would ask President Papoulias to dissolve parliament because the complex situation in the country and the consequences of the global financial crisis necessitated hard decisions.
"My goal was to serve out the four-year term, but for that to be done, there needs to be an appropriate political environment, which we don't have," he said, adding that the opposition "is painting a doomsday picture of the country's economic development."
The New Democracy Party's four-year mandate expires in 2011. However, PASOK has said it will seek to dissolve parliament in the spring of 2010. New Democracy holds a majority of just one seat in the national legislature.
