Sa'ar: Livni wants 'leftist' government

Likud faction head: Livni's policies won't stand test of elections; Livni meets Meretz, GIL leaders.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN, JPOST.COM STAFF
gideon saar 248.88 (photo credit: Ori Porat [file])
gideon saar 248.88
(photo credit: Ori Porat [file])
Likud faction head Gideon Sa'ar decried on Friday Kadima leader Tzipi Livni's invitation to Meretz to join the coalition. Livni's overture to Meretz, Sa'ar said, was essentially a declaration of her intent to pursue - and even intensify - outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's policies of peace talks with the Syrians and Palestinians, and shows she means to establish a "leftist" government. The new Kadima Party leader knows these policies don't have the support of the majority of the public, and therefore she won't put her positions to the test of general elections, Sa'ar asserted. Livni kicked off a series of meetings Friday aimed at holding together and bolstering the coalition, and won the support of the GIL Pensioners Party. In a meeting with Livni, GIL chairman Rafi Eitan said he would support a government with her at the helm, but stressed that if additional factions joined the coalition, GIL would have several more demands. Livni said that she would abide by every agreement reached between Eitan's faction and Olmert and that she was willing to listen to all the party's criticisms and requests. After meeting Eitan, Livni headed for talks with Meretz leader Haim Oron, and on Saturday night, she is due to meet NRP chairman Zevulun Orlev. Earlier, Kadima MK Otniel Schneller said that if Meretz joined the coalition, a right-wing party would have to join at the same time in order to balance it out and prevent the government from becoming too left-wing. On Friday morning, in a speech to the Kadima faction at the party's Petah Tikva headquarters, Livni called upon Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to keep his promise to resign in the aftermath of Wednesday's Kadima primary. Olmert announced at a press conference on July 30 that he would resign after the primaries and his aides said that night that he would submit his resignation letter to President Shimon Peres the morning after the Kadima leadership race ended. But sources close to the prime minister said Thursday that he would only submit the letter on October 2, after the Rosh Hashana holiday. "Olmert said he intended to quit after the primary," Livni said. "Because there is country to run, we must act quickly to set up a government, not because I want to, but because the country is facing many difficult challenges. We don't have time for political games." Livni pledged that Kadima would continue to run the country for years to come and sent a message to Kadima's coalition partners. She said she purposely did not form a coalition-negotiating team because she wanted to handle the negotiations directly with the heads of the parties, and quickly. "We entered this process because we were asked to replace our prime minister," Livni said. "There is no obligation to change the coalition. I don't see any reason for the coalition partners to try to take advantage of the process for their own gains. We have no reason to worry about elections in Kadima, but they are unnecessary." Vice Premier Haim Ramon said Kadima should threaten its coalition partners with elections and refuse to change the coalition guidelines. Ramon advised Livni not to tell Olmert to quit, because it would complicate efforts to form a coalition, but MK Tzahi Hanegbi (Kadima) said Olmert had to leave as soon as possible in order to advance the coalition-building effort. In the face of threats from Labor to bring down the government, Livni said that if Labor wanted to initiate elections, the party could have done so two months ago.