Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a live interview to Channel 13 on Tuesday in which he addressed the issue of the deficit Israeli entered into during his time in office. According to Haaretz, the next administration will have to cut 20 billion nis when submitting the budget for 2020.
Netanyahu, who rarely gives interviews to Israeli media, played down the deficit and said that “it is not so big” and that he was not surprised by it. “The country is small and the population grew in numbers,” he said.
The second part of the interview will be aired on Wednesday, a day before the primaries within Likud, the party Netanyahu is the head of.
According to Haaretz, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon will step down in six months. In an opinion piece printed on Christmas Eve, Nehemia Shtrasler poked fun at the minister by calling him Santa-Khalon. Only that unlike Santa Claus, Khalon was unable to find magical resources to support his spending policy, the opinion argued.
Netanyahu also claimed that he gets a great deal of support in the general public despite his failure to form a government and leading the country into a historical third elections in the space of one year.
The Supreme Court intends to rule on the legal matter of a serving Prime Minister indicted with criminal charges who might be running for office. Netanyahu already said on this issue that “if the people do not get to decide, it is not a democracy.”