Labor MK Efrat Rayten will run against her faction leader Merav Michaeli in the next party primaries, she announced on Friday afternoon.
Speaking on Channel 12’s Ofira and Berkovich program, Rayten said she “will put herself forward as a candidate” to head the left-wing Knesset faction.
“I have no doubt that I will put myself up as a candidate in the next elections for the chairman of the Labor Party,” Rayten stated, “I think this is part of what is beautiful about our party, unlike other parties, we have mechanisms and we have activists.”
“I have no doubt that I will put myself up as a candidate in the next elections for the chairman of the Labor Party.”
Efrat Rayten
Afterwards, Rayten commented on Michaeli’s performance as the Labor Party Leader. “I think she is being treated wrongly. Obviously, if you look in retrospect, a merger with Meretz could change the entire picture, but it’s not certain that this is what would’ve prevented the formation of the current government, but it could have narrowed the mandate gap between the blocs.”
Status of the party
The Labor Party currently has only four seats in Israel’s Knesset, and is currently part of the opposition. Michaeli in January criticized Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for their plan to combat inflation, stating that the plan is a “a smokescreen to hide the seizure of power and the destruction of the legal system they are planning to implement in the next few weeks.”
Labor MK Merav Michaeli is seen speaking at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on March 20, 2023. (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)Michaeli and Labor have argued with other opposition parties regarding who should be the agreed candidate to sit on the Judicial Selection Committee, while Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid said there will be no agreements with the current coalition until the government’s proposed judicial reforms until the Judicial Selection Committee convenes and begins its work.
Lapid stated that he had trouble communicating with Labor, since it has polled under the electoral threshold under Michaeli.
Zachy Hennessey and Eliav Breuer contributed to this report.
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