Chairwoman of the New Right party Ayelet Shaked stated, “Blue & White wishes to assassinate democracy and bring the people’s power to the State Attorney General. I will not permit this to happen.”

MK Shaked on Sunday was interviewed on KAN Reshet Bet Radio, addressing ongoing coalition negotiations headed by the Blue & White party.

Speaking with radio host Aryeh Golan, Shaked explained, “Gantz called me after receiving the mandate to form a coalition and I told him that he should first meet with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and then they would sit and talk”.

Statements explaining Blue & White at this stage is willing to cancel the planned premiership rotation were deemed “a positive step” by Shaked, citing this shows a measure of progress in talks. She ruled out the possibility of entering into a coalition without the chareidi parties, to add them later on. According to her, “such games must be removed from the political agenda”.

She insists there is no reason that the chareidim cannot be invited to meet and to discuss the issues with them – speaking about the planned coalition guidelines and to create a joint government.

Shaked was asked to comment regarding a planned move by Blue & White, to amend the law to compel PM Netanyahu to step down if and when he is indicted. Regarding the planned change in the law, Shaked said, “absolutely not”, adding “the current law compels the prime minister to step down after a verdict is handed out against him and this is quite logical. The change that Blue & White wants would be the assassination of democracy. They wish to take the power from the elected officials and give it to the State Attorney General, for it is he who decides if an indictment is going to be handed down or not. I will not permit the change in the law for I believe such a change is not proper in a democracy.”

She adds, “from a rational point of view regarding the existing law, one person, and this is the attorney general, will not determine which government will serve in the State of Israel but there will be judicial oversight. Therefore, without anything to do with Netanyahu, but in principle, I am against the Blue & White plan to amend this law.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)