ח"כ תמנו שטה

MK Penina Tamanu-Shata (Yesh Atid) expressed her satisfaction on Wednesday over the Knesset dissolving and going to elections.

"This government over the last four years lost its way and has been kind of arrogant, and instead of working for the public, it was working for itself," she told Arutz Sheva.

The proof of this, continued Tamanu-Shata, is in the legislation advanced by the government, including the Gideon Sa'ar Law, the Recommendations Law, and laws against state witnesses. "These are intolerable things. What would an ordinary person say when he sees the people who are supposed to represent him in the Knesset behaving like that?"

"The time has come to clarify through the polls that a government that is not working for the public but only for itself it will not continue to serve, and the next alternative is Yesh Atid. The next prime minister will be Yair Lapid," she declared.

Asked about the new parties that are being established on a nearly daily basis and about the polls that are unfavorable toward her party, Tamanu-Shata said she was not concerned.

"Yesh Atid did not begin to work today. Over the past four years we have been going through every home and there is no party with a strong presence in the field like Yesh Atid. The public understands that the change will come from Yesh Atid and from Yair Lapid.”

"Lapid has led a very clear line, which is to the right of this government," stated Tamanu-Shata. "It is unthinkable that this government paid protection fees to Hamas. $15 million in two installments of Qatari money. The prime minister gave in to terror and went to a ceasefire. He spoke of a sensitive security period, but this was nothing but a spin that had nothing behind it."

"We need to restore deterrence, we have to provide security to the residents of the south and the north, to say that we do not give in to terror, and also in the social arena to work for the benefit of the public, not to wait for another group to take to the streets. Two weeks ago it was the social workers, the handicapped reminded the government that they are not half a person, the elderly citizens are having trouble making ends meet.”

Asked whether her party and the left-wing parties should unite, Tamanu-Shata stated that her party is not a leftist party but a centrist party.

“We do not unite with the left because that would be mixing things that do not have anything in common. We are at the start of the campaign and we will work hard and I have no doubt that we will win and Yair Lapid will be the next prime minister.”