Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to officially present Israel's largest-ever government on Tuesday.
The incoming government will consist of 30 ministers and eight deputy ministers. The outgoing government of Ehud Olmert had 27 ministers.
Netanyahu had previously criticized the size of Olmert's government as "ostentatious and wasteful," and in 2007 his Likud Party sponsored a bill to limit the size of future governments to 18 ministers.
Netanyahu defended the size of his new government by noting that while it will cost the taxpayers, it would cost even more to have yet another Israeli government fall before the end of its term. The ability to hand out a large number of ministries to coalition partners was the only way to ensure stability, he argued.