Tzipi Livni said she will decide by Sunday whether to form a new government or call for new elections.
The prime minister-designate initialed a coalition agreement with the Labor Party last week but has had difficulty forming a broad-based coalition or it appears a narrow coalition with outside support.
“My tendency in the wake of the primaries was to go to general elections, yet I thought it would be appropriate to form a stable government,” Livni said Thursday at the beginning of a faction meeting.
Livni has been unable to come to an agreement with the religious Shas Party despite offering about a $259 million increase in child welfare increases on Wednesday. On Thursday, the Pensioners’ Party canceled a scheduled meeting with negotiators from Livni’s Kadima Party.
Elections must take place within 90 days of Livni informing President Shimon Peres that she could not form a new government coalition.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
