Livni may seek rotation in Prime Minister's Office

Sources reveal Livni planning post-election talks with Lapid, Yacimovich to examine strategies to advance Center-Left's agenda.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Tzipi Livni 370 (photo credit: Courtesy The Tzipi Livni Party)
Tzipi Livni 370
(photo credit: Courtesy The Tzipi Livni Party)
Former foreign minister Tzipi Livni, in unsuccessful tripartite talks with Labor head Shelly Yacimovich and Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, had intended to plan strategy for how to maximize what the three centrist parties could receive in coalition negotiations with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, sources close to Livni revealed Tuesday.
The late-night talks between Livni, Lapid and Yacimovich ended before Livni had an opportunity to reveal her strategy for coalition talks. They did not get to that point because Yacimovich ruled out negotiating with Netanyahu at all.
But sources close to Livni said she intended to talk about how they could bargain for advancing the issues on the agenda of the three parties. Livni’s associates said she did not intend to discuss what portfolios the parties would demand if they joined the coalition together or whether she would ask for a rotation in the Prime Minister’s Office between Netanyahu and the leaders of one of the parties.
But Livni does intend to raise such issues in further talks with Lapid and Yacimovich following the January 22 election, especially if the three parties together win more seats than the joint list of Likud-Yisrael Beytenu.
"If the three parties come to Netanyahu together after the election, it’s a whole new ballgame,” a source close to Livni said. “We would be a force that can bargain for our agenda in building a stable coalition with Likud and our parties of 75 MKs.”
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MK Yoel Hasson, of The Tzipi Livni Party faction, said Livni’s goal was “to build a united and coordinated bloc after the election to stand before Netanyahu and prevent him from forming a right-wing extremist government with the haredim.”
At a Tel Aviv press conference Tuesday morning, Livni refused to criticize Lapid and Yacimovich, since she still wants to join forces in talks with Netanyahu. She even urged the public to vote for any of the three parties they choose.
"If we decide that together we force a national emergency government on Netanyahu, we can advance all of our priorities,” Livni said at the press conference. “Our call to the public should be: vote for one of the parties in the Center bloc. Any vote for one of our parties is another vote for all of us.”
In an Army Radio interview, Livni denied accusations by Lapid that she intends to quit politics if she fares poorly in the election.
"I will stay in politics as long as I know things need to change,” she said. “I have a responsibility on my shoulders to fight for anyone who votes for me.”