Barely a year after coming to power, the coalition led by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett surprised the entire country on Monday evening by announcing its intention to dissolve parliament to bring about a fifth ballot in less than four years.
“My friend, the foreign minister, and I have decided together to dissolve parliament and agree on a date for holding new elections,” the prime minister said in a speech broadcast on all Israeli channels. Bennett alongside Yair Lapid.
The two men had united in June 2021 a unique coalition in the history of Israel bringing together parties of the right, the center, the left, and for the first time, an Arab formation, in order to put an end to 12 years without stopping reign of Benjamin Netanyahu as head of government.
However, the Bennett-Lapid coalition agreement also provided for a rotation between the two men at the head of the government and the replacement of Mr. Bennett by Mr. Lapid in the event of the dissolution of Parliament.
If the bill aiming to dissolve the Parliament is indeed adopted by the deputies, Yaïr Lapid will thus become the new Prime Minister of Israel until the formation of a new government.
Yair Lapid will “soon” become Prime Minister, Mr. Bennett confirmed on Monday evening, pledging to respect the agreement between the two men.
Naftali Bennett “puts the interests of the country before his personal interests”, supported by his side Mr. Lapid, who should be Prime Minister during the visit planned from July 13 of the American President, Joe Biden, his first in Israel since arriving at the White House in January 2021.
The settler crisis
The coalition stumbled over the issue of renewing the Settlers’ Law which allows Israeli laws to apply to the more than 475,000 Israeli settlers living in the occupied West Bank.
In force since the start of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in 1967, this law is automatically ratified every five years by Parliament.
But the opposition – which nevertheless largely supports this law – inflicted a snub on the coalition on June 6 by uniting a majority of votes against the renewal of this law in the hope of showing the internal tensions in the coalition.
Indeed, two members of the coalition, an Arab MP from the Raam party and an Arab MP from the Meretz party (left), voted against the bill, thus calling into question the stability of the government led by Naftali Bennett.
This law had to be renewed by June 30 or Israeli settlers in the West Bank risked losing their legal protection under Israeli law. In the event of dissolution of the chamber, however, this law is automatically extended.
“With the expiration of this law, Israel risked serious security problems and legal chaos. I could not accept that, ”said Mr. Bennett, leader of the radical right-wing Yamina, which concentrates its support precisely among the settlers, to justify the dissolution of Parliament.
Towards elections
In the weeks leading up to that vote, the coalition had already lost its majority with the departure of a member of Bennett’s Yamina party. And since this vote, another member of this right-wing formation, Nir Orbach, has threatened to no longer support the government.
In this context, the opposition led by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accused of corruption in a series of cases, threatened to table a bill on Wednesday June 22 to dissolve Parliament.
But the coalition wanted to take the initiative by itself calling for the dissolution of parliament, which would lead to new elections on October 25, according to local media, the fifth in less than four years in Israel.
The latest polls still place Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud (right) in the lead in terms of voting intentions, but without exceeding the majority threshold (61 deputies out of the 120 in Parliament) with its allies from the ultra-Orthodox and extreme parties right.
“It is clear to all that the most failing government in history has come to an end”, reacted in the evening Mr. Netanyahu, saying he wanted to bring together “a right-wing majority” in a “stable and strong government” rather than seek to join an Arab party.