Fourth in almost 2 years: Israel to hold parliamentary elections again

The coalition government of Israel was unable to agree on a budget for 2021, which means that the country is already facing the fourth general election in less than 2 years. The edition told in more detail with the BBC.

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On Tuesday, December 22, the deadline for budget approval expired and the country's parliament was dissolved in accordance with the law.

The Knesset met before the dissolution. It discussed a possible extension of the deadline for the adoption of the budget, so as not to have to dissolve the parliament. But, contrary to expectations, the majority of the votes were against.

The next elections to the Israeli parliament will be held on March 23, 2021.

Israel has already spent billions of shekels on organizing three previous elections - in April and September 2019 and in March 2020. Only on the third attempt did the ruling Likud party, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, manage to create a coalition with its main rival, the Blue and White party, led by with former Israeli Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, who received the portfolio of Defense Minister after the elections. However, many Israeli analysts said from the very beginning that the budget issue could destroy this already fragile alliance.

Netanyahu's chances are high

According to the agreement between the two parties, the post of Prime Minister of Israel was to be held by Benjamin Netanyahu for the first 18 months, and from November 2021 by Gantz. Now Benny Gantz can go down in history as both an elected prime minister and one who never sat in the prime minister's chair.

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Netanyahu holds the record for the number of years spent as prime minister: he first took office in 1996-1999, and then unchanged since 2009.

Netanyahu and Gantz blamed each other for the situation.

“I didn’t want these elections, Likud didn’t want these elections. We have tried time and time again to prevent them, but unfortunately, Benny Gantz abandoned the agreements with us,” Netanyahu told reporters. He also expressed confidence that his Likud party will win a landslide victory on March 23.

Gantz said to this that the prime minister had every word, then a lie. He believes that Netanyahu really wanted to bring the situation to new elections in order to avoid the process of accusations of corruption.

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Benjamin Netanyahu will remain the prime minister of Israel until the new elections. When the coalition was agreed, the parties entered into an agreement that in the event of early elections, the prime minister's seat will pass to another coalition leader before they are held. The status quo, according to the agreement, remains only if the elections are provoked by disagreements over the budget.

Recent polls have shown that Gantz-led Kahol-Laban is losing popularity. And although support for Likud has also waned, experts believe that it will be able to regain its position as the country's largest party.

As ForumDaily wrote earlier:

• Three electoral cycles have passed in Israel in a little over a year, which cost the country several billion dollars.
• According to the results first parliamentary elections in 2019Held in April, the government tried to form Benjamin Netanyahu, but failed to do so due to the refusal of Avigdor Liberman, whose party won five seats in the Knesset, to join the block of right-wing parties. Without Lieberman, Netanyahu had 60 votes, that is, before the formation of the coalition, only one vote separated him.
• As a result, second parliamentary elections in September 2019 none of the political forces succeeded in gaining a majority in the Knesset sufficient to form the ruling coalition. The center-left bloc received a total of 56 seats, while the right-wing bloc won 55 seats. Then a lot also depended on Avigdor Lieberman - the head of the conservative party "Our Home - Israel". Lieberman has repeatedly said that he supports the government of national unity, which, in his opinion, means a government with the participation of Kahol-Lavan, Likud and Our Home - Israel. The majority of the votes were won by the Kahol-Lavan party of Benny Ganz, but Ganz said he would not enter the unity government if Netanyahu remained at the head of the Likud.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the third time in a row failed to achieve a majority in the country's parliament. Following the results of the March 2 elections, his Likud party gained 36 seats, and 61 seats are needed to control the party’s Knesset (coalition). The party of Avigdor Lieberman could be an ideal way out of the situation for Netanyahu, but Lieberman would never want to enter into a coalition with orthodox religious parties.
• April 17 Knesset gave 21 days to decide on the formation of the governmentotherwise, Israel could have held its fourth parliamentary elections. Negotiations are believed to have been hampered by the issue of supporting Netanyahu for a bill that would give him immunity from prosecution
• Leader of the Likud party Benjamin Netanyahu and leader of the Kahol-Lavan party Benny Gantz signed an agreement to create a government coalition... As part of the agreement, the parties agreed to rotate the post of prime minister: for the first 18 months Netanyahu will hold this post, then Gantz will replace him.

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