Israel’s right-wing conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a new government after the general election in late September. He returned a corresponding mandate to President Reuven Rivlin on Monday. It could come for the third choice within a year.
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The negotiations for a Grand Coalition, for which Rivlin had also spoken, were already largely failed, after the center-alliance blue-white of Israeli ex-military chief Benny Ganz had canceled talks with Netanyahu’s Likud party in early October.
Netanyahu, who turned 70 on Monday, is struggling with the loss of the right-wing majority in parliament and impending charges in three corruption cases. Already after the last election in April he had failed to form a coalition. The PM said in a statement on Facebook that he had failed to get to the negotiating table.
Does the government get a full order?
Rivlin announced on Monday, according to media reports, that Netanyahu’s challenger Ganz has been commissioned to form a government. Its chances of success for forming a coalition, however, are also considered low. But the president could also explain that there is no way to form a government. Then each of the 120 parliamentarians would have three weeks to seek a majority of 61 MPs for a government. Otherwise, the Knesset would dissolve, and it would come back to early elections – the third within a year.
Blue-and-white had become the strongest force in the election on 17 September with 33 mandates. Netanyahu’s Likud only got 32 seats. However, Netanyahu received 55 recommendations from MPs for the post of Prime Minister – quite the other hand, only 54. However, neither the right-religious nor the center-left camp has a majority to form a government. The ultra-right-wing former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman made no recommendation to either Netanyahu or Ganz. He is seeking a government with both parties.
Netanyahu insists on government partners
Netanyahu and Ganz had already blamed each other for the difficulties of forming a government in recent weeks. The Likud had blamed Blue and White for opposing a unity government with equal shares among its partners. Ganz, on the other hand, emphasized that his party would not sit in a government „whose chairman faces a serious charge.“
