The leader of the centrist Alliance party added: "These talks were never about one parade this summer, they were about agreeing to change the legislation for future years as well as dealing with flags and finding a means of dealing with the past, which provides victims with justice and truth.
Visiting his party headquarters, an upbeat Herzog talked about a "crucial" vote for the country and warned against splitting the anti-Netanyahu vote among the various centrist parties, including charismatic leader Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid Party.
The SDLP is still licking the wounds of its general election drubbing by Sinn Fein and, with the Good Friday process still mired in dispute over IRA disarmament and police reform, all the centrist parties are under remorseless pressure from hardliners.
For Mr Sarkozy to win, he has to simultaneously gain the bulk of the 6.4 million voters who supported Ms Le Pen in the first round, a large chuck of François Bayrou's centrist voters and new voters who abstained in the round.
Sinn Féin and SDLP councillors accepted a compromise motion from the centrist Alliance party that the flag be flown only on dedicated days such as the Queen's birthday.
The main opposition party, the centrist Democratic Alliance, had 22% of the vote, up from 17% last time, and looked set to top the polls in Johannesburg and Cape Town.
If any of them run, they would probably campaign to the left of Clinton, a centrist figure whose hawkish foreign policy is resented by some in the party.
All in all the chancellor delivered an uncontroversial, tinkering, centrist budget.
He is considered a centrist and served as parliamentary private secretary to Clegg from May 2010 to February 2012.
The largest party in the assembly, the DUP, is likely to back the Maginness-Girvan amendment while the centrist Alliance party told the Guardian it would allow its members to vote on an individual basis according to their conscience.
Burnham, who is the favourite to win, last night confirmed that he had reached the requisite 35 MPs supporting him to enter the race, unveiling four male and four female backers from the 2015 intake including some from the left and others from the centrist wing of the party.
