Livni insists Kadima won, Likud mocks
'No one can take this victory from us,' Kadima chairwoman vows at thank-you party for supporters in Tel Aviv. Likud MK Gilad Erdan responds with mocking Livni as 'delusional'
Kadima Chairwoman Tzipi Livni delivered an enthused speech at an event for her supporters on Tuesday evening at the Tel Aviv port, assuring them the party would not enter a "paralyzed government."
"No one can take this victory from us," Livni told the assembled crowd, "no one can take away the feeling
that we can change the country from us or from everyone who held their breath with us on Tuesday night. No magician can make the tens of thousands of people who voted for us vanish. No one can take away the journey that will end when we form a government under my leadership.
"No one can confine us to a paralyzed government. We will not betray the trust of the people, and our test begins today. Those who trusted us did so at a time when people are losing faith in politics. We will act according to that trust and (our) inner conscious."
DJ Tzipi? (Photo: AP)
Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik took the stage before Livni, and said she believed President Peres would task the Kadima chairwoman with forming the next government.
"Livni will call (Likud Chairman Netanyahu) Bibi to a national unity government. But if that doesn't happen, we will sit in the opposition. We don't want to, but we know we can be a fighting opposition.
MK Gilad Erdan (Likud) issued a scathing response to the rhetoric sounded at the Kadima event: "DJ Tzipi is welcome to go right on jockeying at delusional parties, but the person who will form the next government is Benjamin Netanyahu, who was elected by the majority of the public. Kadima is detached from reality and is handling itself according to some imaginary script written for it and for Tzipi Livni by image consultants who cheated and deceived the Israeli public throughout her term and the election
campaign, as they (the public) is now discovering."
At a Likud faction meeting on Monday, Netanyahu said he intends to form a government as quickly as possible. "We have a government at hand, but we want a wider government, this is the direction we're going towards," he said. "My goal is to secure a stable government that can function, a wider government than our natural coalition. But the decision will be theirs. They will get a good proposal from us, a generous one, but the decision will be theirs."
Amnon Meranda contributed to this report
