Kahlon: The Coalition Can’t Go on Like This

YERUSHALAYIM

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon warned on Wednesday that there aren’t enough votes in the coalition to govern and that he is pressing Prime Minister Netanyahu to find a way to expand it.

From its inception a year ago, the 61-member coalition—a bare majority in the 120-member Knesset—has had to strain every effort to muster enough votes to pass legislation, and has not always succeeded. According to Kahlon, the situation is only getting worse.

“The situation in the coalition is very, very difficult. We must say honestly, for two months already we have not brought controversial laws to the Knesset. When we need a majority, there are two Likud MK’s who do not want to come for the votes, and some other MK who is mad and another Knesset member from here and another MK from there. A week ago, we lost an important vote. Before that we lost an important vote. It is impossible to continue this way,” Kahlon told a business conference in Tel Aviv covered by Haaretz.

“I am constantly putting pressure on [Netanyahu] to expand the government,” Kahlon said, adding that he hopes to bring Zionist Camp into the government.

Kahlon said he wants to see a unity government because of the “social situation in the country.” A unity government could improve the atmosphere until the next elections, he said.

However, to date, Opposition leader Isaac Herzog has bluntly refused every overture to join the Netanyahu government.

When asked whether the time has come for Netanyahu to leave after four terms and be replaced by “new faces,” Kahlon answered: “You want to see my face? Next question.”

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