Former Justice Minister Tzipi Livni says she is “ready to be Prime Minister”.
Speaking to Channel 2 News on Saturday night, the head of the Hatnua party confirmed reports that she and Labor leader MK Yitzhak Herzog were holding talks about running together in the next elections, and predicted that a joint list will ultimately be agreed upon.
“We need to remove [Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu from power. I will act before and after the elections so that Netanyahu is not prime minister,” declared Livni.
“The combination of Netanyahu and [Jewish Home chairman Naftali] Bennett is destructive. I want someone with my positions to be prime minister. I am a candidate for prime minister and I am ready to be prime minister, but I’m not placing what I think at the top of my priorities. The test should be a test of what can bring more votes to replace Netanyahu. There will be a joint list because it is essential, because it gives a better result than if we run separately,” she continued.
“Once there is hope that we can replace Netanyahu, it will happen. We must examine which list is better than the sum of its parts. The criteria are that two running together bring more than two running alone,” said Livni. “For me, any result whose number will be better than the results of each of us running alone, will be better.”
Livni was asked about her running in different parties over the last few years, having been originally a member of the Likud, then moving to Kadima and then leaving Kadima and founding Hatnua.
“I never changed. I got tired of the Likud, of the internal dynamics and its extremism,” was her reply.
On Friday it was reported that Herzog and Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid are competing to bring Livni into their parties in a bid to become the largest in the “center-left” bloc as it is being referred to. That report said that Livni is leaning towards Herzog.
According to a poll this week conducted by the Rafi Smith Institute for Globes, if Livni and Herzog were to run together they could expect to get 24 seats and become the largest party, outstripping Likud by one mandate.
