Yesh Atid chairman MK Yair Lapid declared on Monday that he may not head an alternative government to a Likud-led government.
"Yesh Atid may not lead the government even if it is the largest party in it," Lapid said.
"If Yesh Atid is the largest party in the next government, this fact may not guarantee me the post of Prime Minister, but it will ensure that the citizens' money is not directed to more isolated settlements, that the Supreme Court is protected from attacks, that the haredi monopoly on Judaism is abolished, that LGBTs and Druze and young people who are worried about the climate crisis will be able to feel that this is also their country," he added.
The Likud responded by saying, "Yair Lapid continues to hide in order to conceal from the public the question of the election: Who will move the Israeli economy forward at this critical time when we are coming out of the coronavirus - Netanyahu who has already rescued Israel from two economic crises, or Lapid who was the most failed Finance Minister in the country's history?"
The Religious Zionist Party also responded to Lapid's remarks, saying, "Tonight, Lapid tore the mask off the bluff of a government with a 'right-wing majority.'"
"Sa’ar and Bennett are ready to form a government with Lapid, to give up the ability to form a real right-wing government - only because of personal desires - and thus abandon the entire settlement, the Jewish identity of the State of Israel and the ability to make historical corrections in the ill justice system," the party said.