The result of the Likud-Beytenu merger is the opposite of its stated goal – to
have a faction large enough to allow it to form a stronger, more stable
coalition with fewer parties – Yair Shamir said on Monday.
“I don’t have
a good answer about the results we see today. We lost seats. I wasn’t part of
the decision,” Shamir said, in reference to the merger. “If we get few votes, we
will build the coalition with a wide variety of parties and will have to
compromise.”
Speaking at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Shamir
listed some of the reforms his party seeks to make in the system of government,
including giving the prime minister more power, raising the election threshold,
which is currently 2 percent, and decreasing the number of no-confidence votes
in the Knesset.
Shamir also repeated Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s
promise that in the next government Likud Beytenu will take the Housing and
Construction Ministry, which belonged to Shas for the past four years, along
with the Interior Ministry.
“I think we need the Housing Ministry, and
the Interior Ministry also needs to be refreshed; they’ve belonged to the same
parties for years,” he stated. “If Shas will be partners in the coalition, they
must be ready to part with [the ministries], so we can bring a change that will
benefit the Israeli public.”
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