Erez Tadmor, a candidate for Likud's Knesset list, said on Thursday that Justice Minister Yariv Levin's approach to the judicial reform three and a half years ago was a strategic error, and outlined how the next government should handle the issue instead.
Speaking on Kol Barama radio, Tadmor said: "The strategy we took three and a half years ago, to announce everything in advance and put pressure on everyone, I have a great deal of respect for Minister Levin, but I think that was a mistake."
"What needs to be done is a series of gradual changes, in order to suppress their ability to launch a revolt like the one they carried out here three and a half years ago," Tadmor said.
He argued that the judicial system has accumulated too much power, in a way that he said undermines the balance between the branches of government and transfers authority from elected officials to civil servants and legal professionals.
Tadmor set out the approach he believes the next government should take: advance changes in stages, explain them better to the public, and avoid sweeping moves that create a head-on confrontation.
"What we need to do is [make] a series of gradual changes," he said, adding that the moves should be promoted in a way that reduces the possibility of broad opposition like the one that arose around the previous reform. According to him, changing the composition of institutions and the identity of senior officials could affect how the system operates even before comprehensive reform legislation is passed.
