“This election is about you,...your kids’ futures, what our society is like, and just and equal opportunities. We need social justice at this time"- Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon
By LAHAV HARKOVUpdated: JANUARY 31, 2019 05:00Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon speaks at his Kulanu Party campaign launch in the city of Ashkelon, January 30, 2019(photo credit: Courtesy)
ulanu is a party for people who worked hard to succeed and is not “privileged” people, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon said at his party’s campaign launch in Ashkelon on Wednesday night.Kahlon repeatedly derided “privileged people” and “stars” in his speech, saying that he prefers hard work and experience.He said he is seeking partners that “look people in the eye, understand them and how hard it is to live while making minimum wage and how hard it is to be unemployed.”“That’s what I’m looking for,” he said, adding an apparent dig at Israel Resilience leader Benny Gantz, “not privileged people who say ‘I was there, so now I should be prime minister.’”Kahlon recounted his childhood in an underprivileged family of nine, where he lived in a two-room house.“There were no shortcuts for me,” he said. “Do the privileged people care how much you pay for cell phone service? Were they interested in housing prices? The privileged people should know it doesn’t matter what family they’re born into. They can get jobs by taking shortcuts, but they’ll fail.”“We know what happens with ministers who show up without experience,” Kahlon added.That is why he will keep his current roster of MKs, who have garnered four years of experience, calling them “a winning team.”The campaign launch of the Kulanu Party in the city of Ashkelon, January 30, 2019. (Courtesy)Several other lawmakers from his party will not be running with Kulanu in the next Knesset including Yoav Gallant, who moved to Likud, as well as Michael Oren, Rachel Azaria and Eli Alalouf, who are not candidates for the next Knesset.
Kahlon vowed to deal with issues pertaining to voters’ everyday lives.“This election is about you, every one of you and your families, your kids’ futures, what our society is like, and just and equal opportunities. We need social justice at this time,” he said.The Finance Minister talked about increasing the medicine basket’s budget and his flagship subsidized housing lottery. He also said that 23,500 Israeli children came out of poverty during his tenure, adding: “Just for that, this whole journey was worth it.”As for Kulanu’s poor showing in the polls, getting four seats in surveys taken by all three broadcast channels on Wednesday, Kahlon said that these “polls are only good for making pollsters money,” and claimed that his party was underestimated in 2015 as well.
