Former Jerusalem mayor MK Nir Barkat of the Likud referred to Sa'ar's move in the Meet the Press program.
"Gideon ran for the Likud presidency, lost to Netanyahu. I'll defeat him the day after Netanyahu and he realizes that he'll no longer be in the Likud and he was looking for another way. Maybe, the time will come, the day after Netanyahu.
"I wasn't appointed to any position either, and I'm not angry and going to form a party," he continued. "He understood that the Likud didn't want him chairman of the movement. For him, the thinking is that gaining power depends on leaving the Likud. It's better not be too proud of the polls that predict a lot of seats. The Left is happy about that and so you can understand who it serves."
The Likud responded to interviews that Sa'ar gave to the media channels, "The cat's out of the bag, Gideon Sa'ar announced tonight that he'd join a Leftist government only to overthrow the Likud government headed by Netanyahu."