Liberman postpones budget discussions as coalition totters

As the government coalition totters on the brink of collapse, Israel’s Minister of Finance Avigdor Liberman announced last night that he is postponing discussions on the 2023 budget. He told Channel 12 News, “I spoke with the prime minister and we decided that for the moment we are postponing the budget discussions in order to get organized. We are freezing the discussions as a responsible government, and we will end the summer session and we will organize ourselves.

Liberman spoke about the defeat that the coalition suffered in the Knesset yesterday on the passing of the first reading of the bill to raise the minimum wage to NIS 40 per hour. “We agreed (to postpone the budget discussions) because the vote went against the Committee for Legislative Matters. Everybody must be responsible in what they are doing. I am sure that the budget will pass later and it will be a good budget that is not populist.”

The defeat over the minimum wage bills was just one of a number of defeats inflicted on the government coalition in the Knesset this week. It began with the failure to pass the law regulating the legal situation for Jewish settlers in Judea and Samaria and continued with the failure to approve Matan Kahana as Minister for Religious Affairs, due to the opposition of MK Idit Silman, the rebel Yamina MK who left the coalition two months ago and voted against the government for the first time.

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on June 9, 2022.

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