Liberman says any minority government would be a ‘disaster’
Yisrael Beytenu chairman MK Avigdor Liberman warned that a minority government would be a “disaster” for Israel, and asserted that a broad unity government was the only path forward for forestalling a third election in less than a year.
Speaking at an event in Tel Aviv on Sunday evening, Liberman asserted that “the next 48 hours will be critical to know whether there is a government committed to preventing further elections” and that a minority government under the leadership of either Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz would struggle to pass legislation and would be unacceptably hobbled.
“It is impossible to deal with a minority government,” he said.
Gantz, who was given the mandate to form a government after Netanyahu failed to do so in the wake of the September elections, has until Wednesday to cobble together a coalition. After that, Knesset members may choose a candidate to be given the mandate or decide to head back to elections — the third in less than a year.
Gantz has no realistic path to forming a majority coalition without Likud, though, if Liberman were to back him, he could presumably form a minority government with the external backing of the predominantly Arab Joint List.
