Socialist Party's leader Antonio Costa dries his forehead with a handkerchief as he addresses his supporters after loosing the general elections at the Altis Hotel in Lisbon, on October 4, 2015. (AFP)
The leader of Portugal's opposition Socialists, former Lisbon mayor Antonio Costa, on Sunday conceded defeat in a general election billed as a referendum on four years of harsh austerity policies, as near-complete results gave the ruling centre-right coalition a clear lead.
"The Socialist Party did not achieve its stated objectives, and I take full political and personal responsibility," Costa told supporters in the capital. But he added: "I will not be resigning."