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With a coalition deal on the verge of being completed, ultra-Orthodox politicians and backbench members of the Likud Party have met the expected composition of the new Israeli government with criticism.

The incoming government is set to exclude ultra-Orthodox parties for the first time since 2006. Their exclusion, at the insistence of Yesh Atid and Jewish Home, increases the prospect that ultra-Orthodox religious seminary students will be drafted. Ultra-Orthodox concerns will be raised further by the imminent appointment of Yesh Atid’s Shai Peron as Education Minister, with his party expected to insist that ultra-Orthodox schools teach core curriculum subjects. The Jerusalem Post quotes an unnamed official from the United Torah Judaism party describing Peron as “the most dangerous man in Israel” for the ultra-Orthodox community. Meanwhile, Shas co-leader Aryeh Deri told Channel Two that his first job in opposition is to “bring down the government.”

The expected composition of the new government is also causing consternation among young, ambitious Likud backbenchers. Although the likes of Tzipi Hotovely, Danny Danon and Gila Gamliel scored impressive results in the party’s primaries, they may well be squeezed out of the seven ministerial portfolios that Likud will receive. Moshe Ya’alon is set to become Defence Minister, either Gideon Sa’ar or Gilad Erdan will likely be Interior Minister, while outgoing Likud ministers including Silvan Shalom, Yuval Steinitz, Yisrael Katz and Limor Livnat will expect another ministerial role. Hotovely told the Jerusalem Post that the party’s primaries showed “There was a clear choice to… refresh our ranks” and ignoring this demand risks turning Likud “into a dictatorship.” Meanwhile, Danon claimed, “The prime minister is obligated to give ministerial portfolios to the younger members of the Likud, who did well in the primaries.”