Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon emphasized to parliamentary reporters on Monday that his Kulanu party would not allow itself to be subsumed into the Likud. 

“I didn’t leave Likud to go back to it,” asserted Kahlon, a former minister for the ruling party. “We will run as ‘Kulanu’ in the next [election]. We will not merge with any party. I guarantee it.”

According to Kahlon, the centrist Kulanu party has made a place for itself on the political map. 

“There is room for a social party in the center of the political map,” he argued. “Dramas are always at the end. Like in soccer, at the 88th minute, the major dramas take place. You need to wait until the end.” 

“Our party is needed on the political map, so we will maintain independence,” he added. 

Kahlon also addressed rumors he would join forces with another former Likud minister, the popular Gideon Sa’ar. 

“Gideon Sa’ar is my friend. He has something to contribute to the public. If he wants – he should come to Kulanu,” Kahlon offered, noting though that Sa’ar is a through and through “Likudnik” and there are no such contacts between the two. 

The Finance Minister refused to comment on the alleged row between him and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat over budget cuts and the ensuing layoffs in the city. 

He did however say the ministry was making progress in ending the housing shortage in the haredi community with building in Beit Shemesh, the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood of Jerusalem and elsewhere.