Pensioners Party threatens Olmert again

MKs from Pensioners faction rage that coalition agreements regarding 2007 budget aren't being met. Threaten to oppose Israel Our Home addition to government

Attila Somflavi|Published: 10.26.06 , 21:37

Right on schedule, prior to an important Knesset vote, the Pensioner's faction flexed its muscles in the coalition on again on Thursday. Faction members announced that they would not support the addition of Israel Our Home to the coalition, because of disagreements with clauses in the 2007 budget.

According to Pensioner party ministers, in a meeting between their party and Finance Minister Abraham Hirchson they learned that budget clauses promised to the faction in the coalition agreement did not appear in the 2007 budget.

Party Chairman Rafi Eitan, Health Minister Yacov Ben Yizri and MK Moshe Sharoni decided to demand that a member of their party be appointed to the position of welfare minister (which is currently empty and filled by Ehud Olmert, concurrently with his role as prime minister).

They also demanded to restore pensions to the elderly in their former amount and increase the Health Ministry's budget, in areas related both to pensioners and insurance issues. Party leaders decided that, if these conditions are not met, they will not support the addition of Israel Our Home to the coalition.

Faction members are furious at the prime minister, whom they claim refused to meet with them when they invited him to meet in order to hear details of the resolution with the Labor party (that convinced the party to stay in the coalition) and to discuss the option of the ministerial position in the Welfare Ministry.

Concurrently, they scheduled a meeting with Labor Party Chairman Amir Peretz and Shas Party Chairman Eliyahu Yishai in order to coordinate strategy and joint efforts to address financial and social issues, as well as coalition issues.

Since the government took power in March, the Pensioner's party has threatened to vote against the government on a number of occasions but has never gone through with the threat.

Minister Ben Yivri, who announced two weeks ago that he would vote against the "Lieberman law" in a meeting of the ministerial committee on legislation, but a few minutes later decided to abstain from voting.