Israel’s Parliament collapsed on Tuesday after the government failed to pass a budget, pushing the country into yet another round of early elections, the fourth in two years, reported BBC. Voters will return to the polls in March, just 12 months after the last round.
Two main parties in the unity government – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party with his main rival-turned-partner, Benny Gantz of the Blue and White party – failed to meet a deadline to pass the 2020 state budget. The coalition had time till Tuesday midnight.
Netanyahu and Gantz established a unity government in May in the wake of three inconclusive elections held since April last year. Under the three-year coalition deal, Netanyahu was supposed to serve as prime minister for 18 months, with Gantz taking over in November, 2021.
Gantz had demanded that the government pass a budget covering 2020 and 2021, arguing that Israel, and the coalition, needed stability, according to Al Jazeera. But Netanyahu refused to endorse the spending plans for next year.
Some political analysts said Netanyahu had hoped to use the budget dispute as a way to engineer fresh elections that would get him out of the power-sharing agreement with Gantz, reported Reuters. A new election would mean that rotation of power would never happen.
“The reason we’re heading to an election is because Netanyahu refused to pass a budget as required by law and honour political agreements so that he can remain in power for the duration of his trial,” Yohanan Plesner, the head of the Israel Democracy Institute think-tank, told the AFP.
The next round of election comes at a time when Netanyahu is facing public anger over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. He is also embroiled in a corruption trial, the first against an Israeli prime minister.
“If an election is forced upon us, I promise you that we will win,” Netanyahu said in a televised speech on Tuesday, blaming Gantz for the early ballot, reported Reuters. Netanyahu added that he had arranged for millions of doses of coronavirus vaccine to be delivered to Israel. He also hailed United States brokered diplomatic deals with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.
Meanwhile, Gantz alleged that the Israeli prime minister was trying to form a new government so that he is able to pass a legislation quashing legal proceedings against him. “Netanyahu is taking us to an election for the sole purpose of not going to jail,” Gantz added.
Netanyahu will remain the prime minister until a new government is formed after the March election. Now 71, he first served in the post from 1996 to 1999 and has held the office since 2009.
This time, Netanyahu would also have to face a new rival from the right, Gideon Saar, a defector from Netanyahu’s Likud party. An opinion poll on Israel’s Kan public TV on Tuesday showed Saar drawing even with the prime minister, according to Reuters.
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