Blue and White number two Yair Lapid says that in the case of a repeat of the post-April coalition-building deadlock after September’s election, the Likud party will dump Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as its leader and form a unity government with Blue and White.
Yair Lapid and supporters of Blue and White Party pose outside their campaign bus in Glilot, July 21, 2019. (Flash90)
In an interview with The Times of Israel, he claims Likud, whose MKs unanimously supported Netanyahu’s resort to new elections when coalition talks failed at the end of May, will not tolerate a recurrence and are ready to abandon their leader if he cannot deliver a clear-cut victory.
“We are already talking to everybody in Likud, who are outraged by three things,” Lapid said, explaining, “They realized too late that the only thing he is negotiating for [when he tries to build a coalition] is his immunity [from prosecution in the three corruption cases against him]. Not, for example, their seats. He was willing to sell all the important ministries to [potential coalition] partners without leaving anything for Likud people. So they’re upset about this. They’re upset about the election. And they’re extremely upset about this walk of shame that he forced them into — signing this North Korean-like vote of confidence. It’s not even a vote of confidence…”
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