Shas party Chairman Minister Aryeh Deri is calling on the religious right-wing parties to make order between themselves and run as a united list to avoid wasting votes, as has been the case in the last two elections for Knesset. Deri feels this is necessary if the right-wing bloc expects to be able to arrive at 61 mandates towards forming a coalition government.

In an interview with KAN11 News on Thursday, December 12, 2019, Deri called on the religious Zionist tzibur to unite to avoid a repeat of small parties running independently in the election and having tens of thousands of votes trashed as the parties fail to reach the minimum election threshold to enter Knesset. He explained “the right-wing bloc has over 61 mandates and unfortunately, there are internal struggles and egos in the bloc that prevent reaching 61 mandates. I hope that this time around, the dati leumi community will make order and run united”.

Deri then added that his backing for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stems from the fact he feels that he is the person most suited to run the nation. He promises to continue backing him but did condition the support on the right-wing/religious bloc being large enough.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)