MK Danny Danon, who heads the Likud Central Committee, on Tuesday evening said that elections could have been prevented, and said he hoped the Likud will learn the lesson from the coalition collapse.

“The makeup of the coalition undermined the governance, the mistake was that instead of forming a government with Bennett and the hareidi parties, [Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu] first of all added Tzipi Livni. That was a mistake, and we saw that Livni and Lapid did nothing but mess things up,” Danon told Arutz Sheva, hours after Netanyahu fired Finance Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (Hatnua), effectively disbanding the government.

He added that the Likud must not be complacent and return to its nationalist roots.

“If we do not go back to the path of the Likud we are in trouble. Freezing construction and releasing terrorists is not the Likud,” said Danon. “We must return to our way soon, we are now steering the wheel and we must not be afraid. A leadership that wants to appease Tzipi Livni and her colleagues is not a leadership.”

Danon called on new faces to join the Likud, saying, “Immediately after the law dissolving the Knesset passes, we’ll gather the Likud Central Committee and we’ll be open to anyone who wants to join. I’m proud of the Likud which made it possible for Moshe Kahlon, who came from a development town, to be the Minister of Communications and which made it possible for me to get to where I am. The Likud is a democratic party that gives a chance to everyone.”

Knesset Speaker MK Yuli Edelstein (Likud) has summoned all Knesset party heads to his office Wednesday morning at 10:00 a.m. to set the date for snap elections.

It is expected that the elections will be held late next March.

Channel 2 polls published Tuesday evening indicated that if elections were held today, Yesh Atid would nosedive from 19 to nine mandates, Likud would stay the largest party at 22 and Jewish Home would come in second with 17.