Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu He is approaching this Thursday his goal of achieving a majority to govern with his religious allies and the extreme right, despite the trial for corruption that weighs against him.
(Read here: Israel: Netanyahu wins legislative elections, will he get a majority?)
After Tuesday’s parliamentary elections, Israeli news networks give Netanyahu’s Likud party and its ultra-Orthodox and right-wing allies Religious Zionism a total of 62 seatsone more than required to have a majority in the 120-member parliament.
(See also: Netanyahu wins elections in Israel with a majority to govern, according to polls)
The Electoral Commission slowly began to reveal the first results confirming this trend, without yet giving a final ruling. Thursday morning, with a 95.7% of votes counteds, Netanyahu’s “right-wing bloc” numbered 65 parliamentarians, with 32 seats for Likud, 19 for Orthodox parties and a record 14 representatives of the extreme right, which according to analysts could constitute the most right-wing government of the country’s history.
This Thursday, four Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank and in Jerusalemincluding the perpetrator of an attack and a combatant, in a context of outbursts of violence.
“It is time to bring security back to the streets, to restore order, to show who is in charge, it is time to kill a terrorist who is carrying out an attack,” said far-right leader Itamar Ben Gvir. The Lapid government “is coming to an end,” he added.
precarious situation
The outgoing Prime Minister, Yair Lapidleader of the centrist formation Yesh Atid, could add 24 parliamentarians and the allied center-right formation led by Benny Gantz a total of 12 representatives, with nine elected from two other formations and ten from the Arab parties.
According to the proportional system that governs Israel, parties must obtain a minimum of 3.25% of the vote to gain access to Parliament, with a minimum of four seats.
Two small parties hostile to Netanyahu, the left formation meretz and the Arab Balad party would obtain 3.15% and 2.97% respectively, leaving their fate in the hands of the last votes to be counted, which are usually those of the military and health system workers. .
An indication of the precarious situation of the outgoing prime minister is that Lapid canceled his participation in the COP27 UN Climate Conference in Egypt on Wednesday. Lapid managed to forge a diverse coalition last year to evict Netanyahu, the prime minister who has been in charge of the country’s government for the longest (1996-1999 and 2009-2021).
Netanyahu clung to the forefront of politics and far from abdicating as his opponents would have wanted, he insisted on his role as leader of the opposition with the aim of returning to power and could try to get Parliament to vote in favor of granting him immunity and annul the process for corruption against him that resumes on Monday.
Once the final results are known, it is up to the president of Israel, who has a mainly symbolic role, Isaac Herzog, to entrust the political leader with more possibilities to form a government to take action. So, a period of 42 days is opened to form a government.
But, according to the Israeli press, Netanyahu’s side did not wait for a formal green light and the former prime minister commissioned Yariv Levin, one of his closest allies, to start talks that are expected to be complex, especially with the Religious Zionism formation. .
The head of this party, Bezalel Smotrich, has already indicated that he wants the portfolio of Defense and Public Security, two key government positions at a time when the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is registering a peak of violence not seen in seven years.
These appointments to these key posts could be “embarrassing in the international arena,” said Palestinian analyst Khaldoun Barghouti. Yossi Klein Halev, a researcher at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, told AFP that “Netanyahu will have difficulty controlling his new associates.”
For its part, the State Department said it does not want to “speculate” on a government, but stated that it hopes that “all senior Israeli officials will continue to share the values of an open, democratic and tolerant society with respect for civil society. especially minority groups.
AFP
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