With its allies, the Likud is the favorite to reach a majority and thus form a government.
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The Likud party of former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu came first in the legislative elections on Tuesday (November 1st) according to exit polls produced by three major Israeli channels. Polling stations across the country closed at 10 p.m. (9 p.m. in Paris) and the result is heading for “a very thin majority” for Netanyahu’s alliance headlines, for example, the Israeli daily Haaretz on its website (article in English).
The right-wing party of former Prime Minister Netanyahu is indeed credited with 30 to 31 seats, out of the 120 in Parliament, a notch ahead of the Yesh Atid party of outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid, which would win between 22 and 24 seats. By combining the scores of its allies, the religious parties and the extreme right, the Likud is the favorite to reach the majority (61 seats) and thus form a government.
The extreme right on the podium
The far-right alliance of Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir is expected to form the third Knesset force with 14 seats, neck and neck with Benny Gantz’s center-right formation (11 to 13 seats according to the first polls). Unlike some previous polls, the Israeli Arab parties presented themselves in dispersed order under three lists: Raam (moderate Islamist), Hadash-Taal (secular) and Balad (nationalist).
Ousted from power in June 2021, Binyamin Netanyahu stood in ambush during these legislative elections, the fifth of their kind in the space of three and a half years in Israel. At 73, Netanyahu, the longest-lasting head of government in the country’s history, could therefore sign a new comeback if the first estimates are confirmed. Among the first to react to these polls, the Palestinian Prime Minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, denounced Tuesday evening a “rise of extremism” in Israel.