Aryeh Deri: Shas won't sit in gov't with Lapid

The Shas leader told "Globes" the coalition must change its attitude to the poor.

Despite the current crisis caused by the peace talks, the breakup of the current government looks far off, but if anyone thinks it is possible to bring Shas into the ruling coalition to prevent elections, the party's chairman Aryeh Deri this morning shattered such hopes.

He told "Globes" "If the basis of such a coalition is Yair Lapid, then I don't see how we could enter the government. It looks like something just hypothetical. I'm not a fig leaf. If they want Shas to come in, then they'll have to do something different. I don't want there to be elections, nobody wants that, there is no point in running to the ballot box every year. We want to join the government and the coalition, that's the reason why we run for the Knesset to influence the government but for us to join the government, they will have to set up a new coalition based on new guidelines."

Deri added, "For us to join, they will have to change their attitude to widening gaps and the disadvantaged, the poor, the middle class, and adopt other policies regarding the ultra-orthodox and world of Torah. If they just want us to make up a minyan and to give us a few biscuits, then I don't need favors. If until now Lapid hasn't bothered to talk to any of us about either ideas or ideology, then there is no chance we'll sit with him in the government."

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 13, 2014

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2014

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