Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian claimed early on Wednesday to have received assurances from leaders of the Armenian parliamentary majority that they will not block snap general elections which he wants to be held in December.

Pashinian met with them overnight as thousands of his supporters rallied outside the parliament building in Yerevan to demand the conduct of such elections.

Under Armenia’s constitution, the National Assembly, in which Pashinian controls only a handful of seats, can be dissolved only if the prime minister resigns and lawmakers fail to pick his successor within the next two weeks.

Pashinian said parliamentary leaders of Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party (HHK), Gagik Tsarukian’s Prosperous Armenia (BHK) and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) assured him that they will not field any prime-ministerial candidates in case of his resignation.

“My impression is that our partners from the HHK, BHK and Dashnaktsutyun got our message … They said that in this situation nobody is going to nominate a candidate for the post of prime minister,” he told supporters after the two-hour meeting.

Pashinian said the three parliamentary forces at the same time refused to sign any joint statements to that effect. He warned that they will “declare a war against their own people” if they renege on their verbal assurances.

None of these parties immediately commented on the meeting with Pashinian.

The prime minister made clear that in any case he will tender his resignation “in the coming days” so that the elections are held “in the first half of December.” He said he might step down even before Armenia hosts on October 11-12 a summit of Francophonie. In an apparent reference to French President Emmanuel Macron, he said he will talk to some leaders of the loose grouping of French-speaking nations to see if such a move would be appropriate.

Pashinian is due to fly to Paris on Thursday to attend the funeral of French-Armenia singer Charles Aznavour, who died on Monday.

The premier made no mention of a controversial bill which led him to organize the demonstration around the parliament building. The bill passed by the parliament on Tuesday evening could make it harder for Pashinian to force the snap elections.

Addressing the crowd before the overnight talks with the parliament factions, Pashinian urged President Armen Sarkissian not to sign the “disgraceful” bill into law and to send it to the Constitutional Court instead. He also demonstratively sacked six government ministers affiliated with the BHK and Dashnaktsutyun.