Herzog rules out joining coalition with Netanyahu

Leader of the centre-left Zionist Union Isaac Herzog yesterday ruled out the possibility of his party joining a coalition government with the Likud party.

Speaking on the sidelines of a party meeting in Tel Aviv, Herzog said: “The union will be a suitable alternative to the expected government in all fields.”

Herzog said the next government will be an “extremist” right-wing one which would not hold for long, Israeli public radio reported.

“The only realistic option before us is to stay in the opposition” and to continue the fight for a Jewish, democratic, safe and just state.

Zionist Union co-leader and head of the Hatnuah party, Tzipi Livni, said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s dream government is in fact a “nightmare government for the State of Israel”.

“Therefore we must not give up and we need to fight for our path from the opposition,” Livni said.

According to unofficial semi-final results by the Israeli media, Netanyahu’s Likud party won 30 seats, while the Zionist Union won only 24 seats and the Joint Arab List 14.

Israel’s Yediot Aharonot newspaper reported: “The Israeli elections commission began counting more than 200,000 votes from the army and the Israel Prison Service and diplomatic missions.”

Meanwhile, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin called the heads of all the parties to consult with one another about the next prime minister.

A statement issued by Rivlin’s office and quoted by Israeli public radio said: “The Israeli president invited the parties that won seats in the Knesset to a meeting.”

The statement pointed out that “meetings will begin on Sunday to delegate one of the heads of the parties to form a government.”

The task of forming a new government does not automatically fall on the party with the largest number of votes, but on the party leader with the best chance of forging a coalition with a parliamentary majority of 61.