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Itongadol.- Elections winner Benjamin Netanyahu will name Kulanu leader and former Likud ally Moshe Kahlon as finance minister in his new coalition government, sources in the prime minister\’s Likud party said Wednesday.
Kahlon was communications minister a previous Netanyahu government, before resigning amid bad blood with the prime minister and establishing his own party with an economic agenda.
Striving to form a coalition government, Netanyahu has in recent days met with his "natural partners" – Naftali Bennett of Bayit Yehudi , Avigdor Lieberman of Yisrael Beytenu and Kahlon. In the meantime, he faces growing pressure to keep key ministries for his own Likud party, which won 30 seats in the elections.
The head of the Central Elections Committee, Salim Jubran, was to deliver the official election results to President Reuven Rivlin on Wednesday. The president was to then ask Netanyahu to form the next government, and talks between the parties will officially begin at the Knesset on Thursday.
Netanyahu had promised Kahlon that he would receive the finance portfolio, as he had pledged before the elections.
The prime minister met with Lieberman on Tuesday, for the first time since the elections. During the meeting, Lieberman laid out his party\’s platform, at the forefront of which are a bill to introduce on the death penalty for terrorists and legislation for 90-percent mortgages for young couples.
Netanyahu also met with Kahlon on Tuesday. The latter has already presented most of his coalition demands to the prime minister, including the Finance Ministry and other powerful positions on the economy, such as the leadership of the Knesset Finance Committee, the Israel Land Administration, the Housing Cabinet and two additional portfolios. Netanyahu told his former communications minister: "I promised you the treasury during the elections and I intend to keep that vow."
Netanyahu on Monday spoke with the chairman of Bayit Yehudi, Naftali Bennett, who also laid out his party\’s platform, in particular the promotion of the nationality bill from the last Knesset and of the bill to impose heavy taxes on left-wing organizations, which Bayit Yehudi maintain work against the interests of the State Israel, and a clear right-wing stance on diplomatic and defense issues.
Meanwhile, Likud MKs and ministers are demanding that the party hang on to the Foreign Ministry or Defense Ministry, as well as other social affairs ministries through which, according to the Likud beliefs, it will be possible to influence the cost of living and improve the quality of life in Israel.
The would-be coalition members anticipate some disagreements in the negotiations, along with rows over the Finance Committee and the senior portfolios. The negotiations are expected to run until the last possible minute, until the May 7 deadline to form a government expires.