Netanyahu-Bennett talks do not go well

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yamina leader Naftali Bennett held coalition talks for the first time in more than a week on Thursday and both sides reported that they did not go well.

Netanyahu did not agree to raise his offer of one midsize ministry and one junior portfolio for the six-MK faction. A report that Netanyahu offered the Health Ministry to Yamina was strongly denied by both parties.

Bennett said all the party’s leaders must be given positions of influence. But Likud officials said the party’s demands were unrealistic.

Sources in Yamina said they had leverage over Netanyahu, because there are clauses in the coalition agreement that require 75 to pass and Netanyahu would have only 72 without the party. One possibility raised by former Netanyahu chief of staff Natan Eshel is to try to bring in two of the parties that make up Yamina without the New Right of Bennett and Ayelet Shaked. Party officials responded that Yamina would remain united.

Yamina boycotted a vote in the Knesset on Thursday on a bill that would facilitate a government led by Netanyahu and Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz.

Gantz told party members on Thursday that he does not intend to exercise the housing arrangement clause in the coalition agreement that would grant him an official residence as vice prime minister. He will instead continue to live at his own home in Rosh Ha’ayin.

The party said the number of posts in the government it will take will be curbed.

Members of the Blue and White faction unanimously decided to donate 20% of their monthly wages from April onward. They further determined that once the government is formed, they will work with the relevant professional staff to advance pay-cuts for senior positions, including government ministers and lawmakers, at least over the period during which the country is struggling with the economic implications of the coronavirus crisis.