Israeli Prime Minister-designate Tzipi Livni said Thursday that she will made a decision by Sunday on whether to form a new government or opt for an early general election.
By law, the woman leader of the ruling Kadima party has 10 more days to cobble together a government within the 42-day time limit. Yet she has expressed her intention to present a coalition to the parliament on Monday, the first day of the legislature's winter session.
"Decisions need to be made by Sunday, and then we will know whether we'll have a government or elections," local news service Ynet quoted her as saying at a Kadima meeting.
Earlier this month, Livni secured an initial coalition agreement with the second largest party Labor. Yet coalition talks with the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, the third largest by parliamentary seats, are seemingly tottering toward breakdown.
In an apparent reference to the negotiations with Shas, Livni was quoted as saying that she is willing to pay a price to form a government, but not willing to pay any price.
Even without Shas, the former Mossad intelligence agent would probably succeed in patching together a narrow coalition with some smaller parties. However, Shas leaders and some Kadima lawmakers have vowed to block such a cabinet from clearing the parliament.
Meanwhile, an early general election does not seem like a less risky choice. Recent polls showed that the current main opposition party Likud, which has been persuading Shas not to join Livni's administration, would emerge as the biggest winner.
Yet a confident Livni, the would-be second woman premier in Israel's history, told her fellow party members that should an early general election be held, possibly in the spring, "we'll win."
Source:Xinhua
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