Israel: Former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu wins legislative elections

Binyamin Netanyahu greets his supporters in Jerusalem on November 2, 2022. AP - Oren Ziv

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2 mins

Former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is the big winner of the legislative election on Tuesday, November 1, the final results of which were announced on Wednesday by the electoral commission.

Next step: the delicate formation of a government.

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Despite his corruption trial, Binyamin Netanyahu won with his allies from the ultra-Orthodox parties and the far-right Religious Zionism list 64 of the 120 Knesset mandates, three more than the majority threshold, announced this Thursday evening the electoral commission two days after the legislative elections.

Shortly before, outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who had ousted him from power last year by setting up a motley coalition which has since imploded, contacted his rival to congratulate him on this victory.

According to the electoral commission, Binyamin Netanyahu's "right-wing bloc" won 64 seats - 32 for his Likud party, 18 for the two Orthodox parties and a record 14 for the far right - in what could be, according to analysts, the most right-wing government in the country's history.

Centrist Lapid's Yesh Atid ("There is a future") party won 24 seats, its center-right ally Benny Gantz 12 seats, followed by 10 seats for two other parties and five for the Arab Raam party, which had also supported his coalition, for a total of 51 deputies.

The Arab Hadash-Taal party won 5 deputies.

A balancing act

Benyamin Netanyahu will now have to tackle the formation of a government.

On paper, a mere formality.

But in fact, "Bibi" will have to carry out complicated negotiations, analyzes our correspondent in Jerusalem,

.

Because if he can count on the support of the ultra-Orthodox religious of his majority, he will also have to deal with the leaders of the far right: Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir.

The two men have already expressed their demands: they want the Defense and Interior portfolios respectively.

Is Benyamin Netanyahu ready to grant sovereign ministries to the far right?

This Israeli extreme right is the heir to a fanatical ideology, Kahanism.

And the Kahanists are considered a terrorist organization in the United States.

Washington has already warned: the Israeli-American relationship "

".

If he wants to return to the head of the Jewish state, Benyamin Netanyahu will therefore have to start a difficult balancing act.

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• Israel

• Binyamin Netanyahu