A delegation of the Labor Alignment met with President Ephraim Katzir today and suggested that he ask “the largest party in the Knesset” to try to form a new government. The largest party, as a result of the May 17 elections, is Likud and for the Labor delegation, headed by the Alignment’s election campaign chief Haim Barlev, the meeting with Katzir was not a happy occasion.
It was the second delegation the President has seen in the exercise of his legal duty to consult with all political factions before asking one of them to form a government. Katzir met with a Likud delegation last week.
“We shall have to get used to the opposition benches,” veteran Labor MK Shoshana Arbeli-Almoslino remarked wryly after seeing the President. Barlev denied reports that the Alignment was trying to form a minority coalition government. “We are in contact with other parties, not to form a Cabinet but with an eye to future cooperation in the Knesset,” he said.
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