Kahlon, Feiglin both say won’t enter next coalition without control of treasury

Four days before the general election, two party leaders who will likely be critical to any governing coalition after the vote have said they will insist on receiving the Finance Ministry in the next government.

In excerpts from an interview with Channel 12’s “Meet the Press” that aired Friday, Zehut party chairman Moshe Feiglin said: “Without the treasury, I don’t see what’s the point of us being in government. Without it we won’t be able to fulfill our promises, and we mean what we [said].”

Also speaking to Channel 12, current Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon of Kulanu said: “I will only be finance minister. I won’t take any other job. And that is so I can continue the revolution and the positive things we’ve achieved.”

The full interviews with both will air Saturday evening on “Meet the Press.”

The far-right Zehut, which wasn’t initially predicted in opinion polls to clear the electoral threshold for entry to the Knesset in the April 9 elections, has surged in popularity in recent weeks and is currently polling at four to seven seats.

Feiglin is running on a pro-cannabis platform, and is also pushing a radical quasi-libertarian policy package with a religious and nationalist twist.

Pushed out of the ruling Likud party four years ago for his maverick attitude and extreme positions, Feiglin has taken the campaign by storm, putting cannabis high on the national agenda and forcing the frontrunners to take a stand on the issue.

With Feiglin insisting he does not have a preference between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and main rival Benny Gantz as Israel’s next premier, the party could emerge as a kingmaker in a tightly contested race.

According to a report in the Haaretz daily this week, Gantz has said in private conversations that if Blue and White receives at least four more seats than Likud, he will immediately reach out to Kulanu and Zehut as well as the ultra-Orthodox parties Shas and United Torah Judaism.

Gantz will try to convince the parties, which are seen as natural ideological partners for Likud, by saying they can either join a government he heads that will last out its four-year term or one headed by Netanyahu that, in Gantz’s estimation, will collapse after eight months when Netanyahu is indicted for corruption, the report said.

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announced in February he intends to charge Netanyahu with bribery, fraud and breach of trust in a series of corruption cases. Netanyahu, who has denied any wrongdoing, can argue his case to Mandelblit during a hearing, after which the attorney general will decide whether to formally file charges.

Kulanu, Shas and UTJ, who have been allied with Netanyahu for the last three years, have all said they will continue to back the Likud leader, though Kahlon has not ruled out partnering with Gantz.

Citing Blue and White sources, Haaretz said Gantz does not expect the heads of Zehut, Kulanu, Shas and UTJ to recommend he be given the first shot at forming a coalition, but hopes they will refrain from suggesting Netanyahu.

Following the elections, party leaders will recommend who they believe should be prime minister to President Reuven Rivlin, who will then task the Knesset member he believes has the best chance at forming a government with leading coalition talks. Under Israeli law, this MK does not have to be the head of the largest party, and the choice of which politician is at the president’s discretion.