Former Yisrael Beytenu MK Announces New Party

YERUSHALAYIM

Amid intense speculation about the coalition crisis and the possibility of early elections, a new political party has been added to the rapidly-changing situation.

Independent MK Orly Levy-Abekasis announced on Tuesday that she is forming a new party that will pose a challenge to the powers that be, The Times of Israel reported.

Levy-Abekasis left Yisrael Beytenu in 2016 over its joining the governing coalition, on the grounds that the party had abandoned its social agenda in order to enter the coalition.

“I recommend to the party leaders not to fear elections but to fear the new party that was founded,” she told a conference in Sderot on Tuesday.

“My assistants will leave the office tomorrow and go to submit the binder of the [party’s] founders to the population registry,” she added.

Knesset rules say that leaving a party prohibits an incumbent MK from running on an already existing slate in the next election, so if Levy-Abekasis wants another term in office, she has to run on the slate of a new party.

Levy-Abekasis is the daughter of former Israeli foreign minister David Levy.

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