The Gil Pensioners Party will officially split on Thursday, but it is still unclear how many MKs will join rebel Moshe Sharoni in forming a new faction called Justice for Pensioners.Olmert needs 61 to maintain his coalition.
MKs Sharoni, Sarah Marom-Shalev and Elhanan Glazer signed a form on Monday updating the Knesset House Committee that from now on they will be part of the new faction. But they decided not to submit the form until they meet again on Thursday.
That leaves three days for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to persuade Glazer to stay and break up the rebellion, under the assumption that a third of the seven-MK faction would be needed for it to legally be allowed to split. Olmert reportedly met with Glazer last week and offered him the post of deputy pensioners' affairs minister if he would stay.
...Should all three MKs leave, Olmert's coalition would fall from 67 to a tenuous 64. That 64 would include several potentially problematic MKs, including independently-minded Marina Solodkin and Ze'ev Elkin of Kadima and Shelly Yacimovich of Labor. It would also include the Shas MK who replaced suspended MK Shlomo Benizri, whose identity will be decided by Knesset legal authorities on Tuesday morning.
[Hat tip: David Hazony]
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