The Deputy Prime Minister in Greece’s coalition government has announced he will not stand for re-election in the forthcoming national poll.
Veteran socialist lawmaker Theodoros Pangalos, 73, told state TV channel NET he will not run in the early election expected to take place in early May, and predicted that neither his own party nor conservative New Democracy, which leads in opinion polls, will gain an outright majority.
He added that he did not think the two parties were capable of ruling together to get Greece out of its worst economic crisis in several decades.
Pangalos has continuously served as a member of parliament since 1981 and has held many portfolios, including foreign, culture and transport minister.