Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman announced that his party would not join a left-led government if it were to be established after the elections.

“We never zigzagged, we didn’t vote for the [Gaza] disengagement and we didn’t give up Hebron. What has to be clear is that Yisrael Beiteinu will never be a partner to a leftist government,” Lieberman, the foreign minister, said in an interview with Yedioth Aharonoth newspaper. Two weeks ago he had declared that he would not sit in a government with Meretz.

He said he believed the next government would be a unity government.

“Right now there are two realistic options; either a right-wing government, or a unity government let by the right. I think that for all that Bibi [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] and Bougie [Labor Party chairman Isaac Herzog] are saying they don’t want a unity government, they are pretty locked on a unity government,” he said. “I don’t think there are any secret agreements, but all these denials, from my experience, mean that the two of them are moving in the direction of a unity government.”

Lieberman added that the real issue and the real choice in these elections “is between indecision on the one hand, and the ability to decide. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Bougie or Bibi – on the one side, populism and on the other, naiveté.”

Lieberman refused to say whom he would recommend to form the next government, setting a significant benchmark for his party’s support. “What will obligate us will be the guidelines. Will Hamas be eradicated? You cannot make progress in the peace process without getting rid of Abu Mazen [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] and eradicating Hamas,” he said.

Recent polls have seen Yisrael Beiteinu sink to between four and six Knesset seats, compared to the 13 the party has today. The drop is likely related to the corruption investigation that has targeted several senior members of the party, including the party secretary and Deputy Interior Minister Faina Kirshenbaum.

Lieberman presented his election slate two weeks ago. Most of the party’s current ministers – Yitzhak Aharonovitch, Yair Shamir and Uzi Landau are not running, nor is Kirshenbaum or MK David Rotem. Second on the list after Lieberman is MK Orly Levy-Abecassis, followed by Immigrant Absorption Minister Sofa Landver, Safed Mayor Ilan Shohat, and journalist Sharon Gal.