They simply could not hold the country together until May.

They know he's not strong enough to hold the country together.

To hold the country together means negotiating new political relations from the bottom up.

At the very least they could hold the country to ransom.

We hold the country in trust, until that tune comes.

The man who holds the office cannot hold the country together.

So in other words they are holding the country to ransom?

In Iraq, many felt a strong leader was needed to hold the country together despite its ethnic divisions and other problems.

The president's greatest achievement, I think, has been to hold the country together behind a careful, patient policy.

A government of liberal reformers would be unable to hold the country together.