The right-wing conservative Likud party of opposition leader Netanyahu is likely to be the strongest force. Prime Minister Lapid’s Future Party comes in second.
Controversial former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is about to make a political comeback. According to post-election polls, the camp around his Likud party won the Israeli parliamentary elections on Tuesday. As reported by TV channel Kan, the Netanyahu bloc will have 62 of the 120 seats in the Knesset. The encampment around current Prime Minister Yair Lapid has just 54 terms.
Exit polls from other television stations also saw a narrow majority go to the long-time former prime minister’s camp, beset by corruption. The deciding factor here was the strong performance of Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Religious Zionist Party, which, with 14 to 15 seats, became the third strongest party behind Netanyahu’s Likud and the future Lapids Yesh Atid party. According to election polls, the Likud party won 30 to 31 seats, the future party 22 to 24 seats.
Highest number of voters since 1999
According to the Central Election Committee, the turnout of the 6.8 million eligible voters as of 7pm (CET) was 66.3% – the highest level since 1999. The electoral committee did not expect final preliminary results before Thursday. fair. Past elections have shown that the picture may still change before all votes have been counted.
When the final official result is known, President Yitzhak (Isaac) Herzog decides who will be given the task of forming the government. The candidate then has four weeks to form a coalition. Like last year’s election, however, it can take weeks or months for a government to form. Netanyahu was first given the task of forming a government but failed to forge a coalition.
Permanent crisis in Israel
The Mediterranean country with nine million inhabitants has been in a permanent crisis for years. Past elections have often led to unclear majorities. The current eight-party coalition led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett collapsed in June after losing a majority after just 12 months. Foreign Minister Lapid took over as head of government. The extremely unusual alliance was supported by parties from the right to the left – an Arab party was also in government for the first time.
Opposition leader Netanyahu, accused of corruption, wants to return to the post of prime minister. The 73-year-old has been head of government in Israel several times, for a total of more than a decade and a half. Netanyahu aims to form a far-right religious coalition that can help him pass sentence evasion legislation.
The partisan landscape in Israel is highly fragmented and driven by interests. Even parties from similar camps often fail to form alliances. In addition to content differences, this is also due to personal disputes.