Israeli President Réouven Rivlin gave the leader of the opposition Yair Lapid a mandate on Wednesday evening, May 5, to try to form the next government, after the failure of outgoing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to form a right-wing coalition.
Since the expiration, at the stroke of midnight on Wednesday, of the deadline granted to Mr. Netanyahu following the legislative elections of March 23 to form a government, rumors were flowing in Israel. The press competed with scenarios on the follow-up that President Rivlin was going to give to this umpteenth episode of a soap opera that stretches out and which led the Hebrew state to hold four elections in two years, each ballot not reaching either. to win, or to lead to a stable government.
After the failure of Benyamin Netanyahu, boss of Likud (right), to unite with his allies ultra-Orthodox parties and the far right 61 deputies out of the 120 in Parliament required to form a government, Mr. Rivlin spoke on Wednesday with Mr. Lapid and with Naftali Bennett, leader of the formation of the radical right Yamina, who asked him to obtain the mandate to form the next government. At the same time, the president asked the parties to submit potential candidates to him.
“From the recommendations received, it became clear that MP Lapid had the best chance of forming a government (…). I just spoke with Yaïr Lapid and I told him that I gave him the mandate to form the government ”Mr. Rivlin said during remarks from his official residence in Jerusalem.
Unity, a goal
Head of the centrist Yesh Atid (“There is a future”), who came in second place with 17 legislative deputies, Yaïr Lapid seeks to form a “Government of national unity” – rallying the right, the center and the left – in order to oust from power Mr. Netanyahu, currently on trial for ” corruption “ and “Wrongdoing” in a series of cases.
“A unity government is not a compromise or a solution of last resort, but a goal. This is what we need ”, commented Wednesday evening Mr. Lapid in a press release.
“We need a government that will reflect the fact that we don’t hate each other; a government in which the left, the right and the center will work together to face economic and security challenges; a government that will prove that our differences are a source of strength and not of weakness. “
To try to succeed where Benjamin Netanyahu failed, Yair Lapid might need the support not only of Naftali Bennett but also of Arab parties. For now, his “Block of change” – made up of the Labor Party, the left-wing Meretz party, centrist Benny Gantz and right-wing parties led by ex-Likoud Gideon Saar and secular nationalist Avigdor Lieberman – brings together 51 deputies.
To reach the threshold of 61 deputies, he will have to find common ground with Arab parties (10 deputies in total) or with Naftali Bennett.
Bennett “spares no effort”
Mr. Bennett, who would have preferred to participate in a “Right-wing government”, assured Wednesday evening no “Spare no effort” to achieve a coalition government and avoid new elections. “I cannot promise that we will succeed in forming this emergency government, but I can promise that I will try. We will spare no effort to achieve this without compromising our principles and ideals ”, he continued.
According to a poll by Israeli Channel 13 broadcast on Wednesday, 43% of Israelis want a Lapid-Bennett government. If the opposition succeeds in forming a unity government, a page in Israel’s history will turn with the departure of Benjamin Netanyahu, who has spent the last twelve years in power.
Otherwise, Israelis risk having to go back to the polls for a fifth time in just over two years. According to a poll by the Israel Democratic Institute, a Jerusalem analysis center, released on Wednesday, 70% of Israelis expect new elections.
