After hours of delays and behind-the-scenes negotiations, Israeli MPs voted Thursday to dissolve parliament, paving the way for the fifth election in less than four years and the entry of centrist Yair Lapid as interim prime minister.
Some 92 MPs out of a total of 120 voted in favor of dissolving parliament in a final vote on Thursday morning. Shortly before this vote, the elected officials had set November 1 as the date of the next elections.
A parliamentary committee, made up of elected officials from the opposition and the ruling coalition, agreed earlier this week to dissolve the Knesset and Parliament on Wednesday evening. But debates on various bills have delayed the deadline.
Naftali Bennett, who has already announced that he will not be a candidate in the November elections, must cede his post of Prime Minister on Friday at midnight to the head of diplomacy Yaïr Lapid, who will take over until the formation of the next government. .
As soon as the vote in Parliament, the two men changed seats, then Yaïr Lapid went to Yad Vashem, the memorial in Jerusalem of the Shoah, Jewish genocide of which his father was one of the survivors.
“I promised my late father that I would make sure to keep Israel strong, able to defend itself and protect its children,” Lapid said in a statement ahead of a symbolic ceremony. transfer of power.
” I bring you […] the responsibility of the State of Israel”, declared Mr. Bennett during this ceremony, surrounded by his family and wearing a small yarmulke as usual. “I have worked under Prime Ministers, I have known Prime Ministers. You are a good man and an excellent prime minister, and you are a good friend. This is not a farewell ceremony because I have no intention of saying goodbye to you, ”Yaïr Lapid replied to him.
In June 2021, Messrs. Bennett and Lapid had written a page in the history of Israel by bringing together a coalition of eight parties (right, left, center), with an Arab formation for the first time, in order to cut short 12 years of uninterrupted power in Benjamin Netanyahu.
But a year later, the coalition lost its majority in the chamber to the point where the government was unable to pass the renewal of a law guaranteeing the more than 475,000 settlers in the occupied West Bank the same rights as other Israelis.
In this context, Naftali Bennett, himself an ardent defender of the colonies, however contrary to international law, preferred to sacrifice his government, announcing his intention to dissolve the chamber to call new elections.
Already in campaign
But the coalition agreement between MM. Bennett and Lapid provided for power-sharing, with a clause that Mr Lapid would act as interim until a new government was formed in the event of the dissolution of Parliament. According to polls, the Israeli political landscape is still fragmented with 13 parties sharing 120 seats.
“What we need today is to return to the concept of Israeli unity and not let the forces of darkness divide us,” Lapid said last week.
This former star journalist, who founded the centrist party “Yesh Atid” (“There is a future” in Hebrew) a decade ago, will have to quickly put his troops in battle order for the legislative elections, in addition to to be both Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Mr. Lapid will welcome US President Joe Biden to Israel in mid-July for his first tour of the Middle East since arriving at the White House. He will have to keep his eyes on the domestic political front where opposition and Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu, 72, on trial for corruption in a series of cases, is seeking to regain his former post as prime minister.
“The experience [de la coalition] failed. This is what happens when you put together a fake far-right with the radical left, all with the Muslim Brotherhood,” Netanyahu said Thursday.
“Will we have another Lapid government that will also be a failure or a right-wing government led by us? We are the only alternative! A strong, nationalist and responsible government,” Netanyahu added to parliament, before heading to a Jerusalem mall to take in the crowds and de facto launch his election campaign.