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The rally for New Democracy did not look like one being held by the leading party of the ruling coalition of Greece. It looked like a slightly desperate party, looking for guests.

Apparatchiks were urging stragglers to go inside to fill the many empty seats, as the time for the Greek prime minister's appearance was delayed

When Antonis Samaras arrived, I asked him what he would say to people who wanted to vote for the opposition party Syriza, looking set to throw his government out?

"That they are on the wrong path," he said. "And they will lose."

Then he walked on stage to greet his supporters for the last time before the election.

Mr Samaras and his party know it is nowhere near that easy to divert Greece from what seems to be an imminent, radical change of government.

Syriza is leading New Democracy by 4 percentage points in many pre-election polls. Some put the gap as high as 10 percentage points.

New Democracy is unpopular for carrying out years of austerity measures, leading to a deep recession, to meet the terms of the massive EU bailout.

In the past few weeks, the party has carried out an almost unrelentingly negative campaign against Syriza, saying a vote for them means a vote to leave the Eurozone, something 70 per cent of Greeks do not want.

That is despite the fact Syriza has said it would want to stay in the bloc - it just wants to throw out the EU bailout deal conditions.

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Greek election: Ruling coalition New Democracy faces tough battle against opposition Syriza party