Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon will not vie in the March 2 parliamentary election and plans to retire from politics, his spokesman said on Monday.
Kahlon has reportedly informed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of his decision over the weekend. He will remain in office until a successor is chosen, something that is not expected to happen before April.
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Kahlon "is not going to be a member of Knesset or hold any political office. He wants to be with his family and grandchildren," the spokesman said.
In recent days, Kahlon informed the Likud, with which his Kulanu party merged ahead of the Sept. 17 election, that he does not want to appear in the Likud list for the 23rd Knesset.
He is currently placed fifth on the list.
Kahlon reportedly told Netanyahu that he was retiring due to the sense of exhaustion he felt after five years of intense work in the finance ministry.
A veteran Likud member, Kahlon broke with the party five years ago to form Kulanu, whose platform focused on social and economic issues.
The party won 10 Knesset seats in the 2015 elections, but dropped to six seats in the April 9 elections and fell again, this time to three seats, in the snap elections held in September.
Recent polls showed that an independent bid in the March 2 elections would see Kulanu fall below the 3.25% electoral threshold, which translates into four Knesset seats, meaning it would not be elected to parliament.
