Horowitz: Blue and White ‘stealing’ left-wing votes
Democratic Union leader Nitzan Horowitz said on Wednesday that the Blue and White Party is “stealing” leftwing and centrist votes with the intention of establishing a government with the Right and the Likud.
Horowitz accused Blue and White of openly seeking a government with the Likud, but at the same time pretending to be centrist and liberal. He argued that a vote for Blue and White would be a vote for a right-wing government.
The Democratic Union leader made his comments during an interview with The Jerusalem Post, which will be published in full on Friday.
Blue and White leader Benny Gantz has expressed on several occasions his desire to form a national unity government with the Likud, and even said earlier this week he would consider forming a government with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a rotation agreement, if he would be the one to serve in
the first period of the arrangement as premier.
“If Gantz says that his first goal is to form a government with the right wing, how will they end the rule of the right wing?” asked Horowitz.
“The majority of Blue and White voters are people who in 2015 voted for the [center-left] Zionist Union Party .... The majority of Blue and White voters are people of the Center-Left, and they need to understand that if they vote for Blue and White again, their vote will go to the Right.”
Asked if Blue and White was stealing the center-left vote, Horowitz said “Yes, exactly that.”
“They are right-wing, and they don’t hide it. They take pride in it; and that’s legitimate, to be right-wing. But why are they taking votes from the Left?
Horowitz asserted that the Democratic Union is the only party to fully commit to not joining a right-wing government and called on centrist and left-wing voters to vote for his party if they want a center-left government composed of the left-wing parties and Blue and White.
“If they don’t want change, they can vote directly for Netanyahu,” he said. “He’s the same thing [as Blue and White]. Someone who wants something different needs to vote Center-Left so that there will be a different government.”
A representative for the Blue and White Party said in response, “Even Nitzan Horowitz knows that there is only one alternative for Meretz and everyone who wants to replace Netanyahu – Blue and White.”•