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From euphoria to disappointment in just 48 hours. The greatest electoral achievement of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has become a Pyrrhic triumph that does not allow him to form his desired Government , maintains the political blockade and revives the ghost of a fourth election in just over a year. But something more dramatic appears in the path of the veteran leader of the Likud. The heterogeneous anti Bibi majority in the Knesset (62 of 120 deputies) may not be able to govern, but it can promote a law that prohibits a defendant from being prime minister . For example, Netanyahu.
On Monday night and lit by the ballot polls that placed him in a single seat of forming Government after his double failure in 2019, Netanyahu celebrated the victory over the centrist leader Benny Gantz (36 by 33). But the final vote count has erased the smile from Likud by granting the right-wing block 58 seats in the Knesset. Three more than after the elections of September 17 but three less than necessary to head a government that also allows him to face the corruption trial that begins on March 17 without startling.
"Someone here celebrated too soon," says Gantz in his resurrection after being sent hours before to the political cemetery by Netanyahu's advisers.
58 has enormous significance and not only because it seems impossible to attract three deputies from the rival. With the support of the left (Meretz-Laborista-Gesher), the booming Arab bloc (Joint List) and the secular conservative Israel Beitenu (Avigdor Lieberman), Azul y Blanco (Benny Gantz) wishes to promote the law that prevents a defendant from being able to be prime minister Legislation today allows it until the conviction, if it occurs, is ratified in the Supreme Court.
The initiative, which requires complex bureaucratic and parliamentary requirements, is interpreted as a means of pressure for Netanyahu to accept not being the first in rotation in a unity government. At the moment, its mention causes panic in the official residence of the premier in Jerusalem.
"The action promoted by Gantz undermines the foundations of democracy and the will of the voter," he warns at the meeting with the leaders of the three parties in his bloc. "We already warned in the election campaign that Gantz will join those who support terrorism on the Joint List," adds Netanyahu in reference to the Arab bloc, third party (15) of Parliament. Netanyahu says that the Zionist left has no majority since it does not include Arab lawmakers who "do not recognize Israel as a Jewish and democratic state . "
"The citizens have given me more votes than any other candidate in the history of Israel. Gantz, you have lost the elections, give up this objectionable idea that will only increase the fracture in the town precisely when the union is most needed," he asks without Hide nerves and anger. And he adds: "In Iran, candidates are disqualified before the elections but here Gantz does so after the elections and despite the results."
Gantz soon replied on Twitter: "Bibi, have a glass of water, wait for the final results and promise that you will respect them ."
Given the criticism that it is a personal law, Blue and White replies that it would apply only in the next legislature and highlights that in 2008 Netanyahu himself voted in favor of a similar law , which did not prosper, against the then prime minister Ehud Olmert
From the cold arithmetic, Gantz could form a minority government. His problem is that on the one hand several deputies from the most radical wing of the Arab bloc promise not to give their vote to a Zionist prime minister. On the other, the Arab party and Lieberman are opposed to cooperating with each other.
The political landscape remains overcast and under clouds of new elections after a week that Netanyahu began victorious and ends up very worried, especially after the announcement-bomb launched by Lieberman today in favor of the law against his continuity in the position he has held since 2009. But Lieberman knows that Netanyahu will not leave so easily . And he knows that his former close ally has more desire to see his fall than Gantz himself.
Final election results
Drop down
- Likud (right): 36 (32)
- Blue and White (center): 33 (33)
- Joint List (Arabic block): 15 (13)
- Shas (Sephardic Ultra-Orthodox): 9 (9)
- Labor-Meretz-Gesher (left): 7 (11)
- Torah Judaism (Ashkenazi Ultra-Orthodox): 7 (7)
- Israel Beitenu (secular right): 7 (8)
- Yamina (religious right): 6 (7)
Result by blocks
- Right block: 58
- Center-left block and the Arab block: 55
- Israel Beitenu: 7
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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