Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on trial for ” corruption “ in a series of cases, on Wednesday 5 May failed to form a government on schedule, paving the way for his opponents who seek to oust him from power.
On Monday, Israeli channels competed in scenarios, sometimes the most intriguing, allowing Mr. Netanyahu’s (right-wing) Likud to remain in power by rallying all the right-wing forces, even Islamists, to achieve a parliamentary majority.
In the lead with 30 seats, out of 120 in the Knesset, during the legislative elections of March 23 – the fourth in less than two years in Israel – Mr. Netanyahu had received last month from President Réouven Rivlin the mandate to form a government.
But after weeks of intrigue, hallway discussions, and sometimes contradictory rumors, the most enduring prime minister in Israel’s history has failed to muster a majority of 61 MPs to form a government.
“Shortly before midnight, Mr. Netanyahu informed the presidency that he was unable to form a government and therefore returned the mandate to the president”President Rivlin’s office said in a brief statement.
” Never ending Story “
So what happens next? The Israeli president must get in touch, as early as Wednesday morning according to his services, with the elected members of the Knesset to discuss the procedure to be followed and thus try to put an end to this soap opera to the tunes “Endless story”.
The centrist Yaïr Lapid, former journalist and star TV host, at the head for nearly ten years of the Yesh Atid (“There is a future”) training, said Monday he was ready to be entrusted the task of forming a government. “The time for a new government has come (…). This is a historic opportunity to break down the barriers that divide Israeli society, to unite religious and secular, left, right and center ”, launched Mr. Lapid.
And to accuse in the same breath Prime Minister Netanyahu and his team of not having prevented the tragedy “Avoidable” du Mont Méron, where 45 Jews died on Friday in a giant stampede during a pilgrimage bringing together tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews.
Netanyahu tried to repatriate right-wing rebels
Over the past few weeks, Benjamin Netanyahu has attempted to form a “Right-wing government” with his allies of the ultra-Orthodox parties and the radical right-wing Yamina and far-right formations “Religious Zionism”. But by adding this support, his political counter stopped at 59 elected officials, two deputies close to the parliamentary majority.
In an attempt to reach this threshold, the Prime Minister tried unsuccessfully to repatriate right-wing rebels who left Likud to form the conservative “New Hope” party and wooed Mansour Abbas’s Islamist party RAAM, which made him angry. ‘far right.
But will the opposition succeed today where Benyamin Netanyahu failed yesterday? First, the Leader of the Opposition must ensure that he obtains the mandate to form the government.
As such the former head of the army, Benny Gantz, said Tuesday evening to have “Spoke with all the leaders of the pro-change parties to ask them to recommend that Mr. Lapid obtain the mandate to form the government”, to then form a government together ” in a few hours “.
But once the voices are gathered openly “Anti-Netanyahu” within the left, center and right, the counter of this “Block of change” stops at 51 deputies. And he would therefore have to rally ten other seats among the Arab parties (10 elected in total) or the radical right-wing Yamina formation led by Naftali Bennett, to whom Mr. Netanyahu even offered on Monday, but without success, the post of first minister in a rotation of power.
If the opposition succeeds in forming a 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, the Israelis risk returning to the polls … for the fifth time in just over two years.