Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is re-establishing a bloc of right-wing religious parties that prevented the formation of more medieval and secular coalitions after previous elections.
The ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties England and United Torah were the first to submit to Netanyahu’s pledge of allegiance on Tuesday, agreeing not to go independently with a party led by any party but Likud from after the election March 23.
The document was supposed to be signed by Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party, but the leader of the far-flung group announced Tuesday that it refused to do so, saying such agreements had not been reached. effective in bringing out southern governments.
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“It simply came to our notice then [our] path and values, and we will only be part of a government that puts them into practice, ”the Smotrich party said in a statement.
However, Netanyahu got the Religious Zionism Party to sign an agreement in which the latter promised to recommend to President Reuven Rivlin after the election that Likud’s leader be tapped to form the government. However, Smotrich did not go so far as to promise to sit under Netanyahu as the leadership of Haredi parties did in their agreement with the prime minister.
The resurrection block will almost certainly be smaller this time, as it will also not include Naftali Bennett ‘s Yamina party, from which Smotrich split last month. Bennett has campaigned strongly against Netanyahu’s treatment of the pandemic and has presented himself as a ‘candidate for prime minister,’ despite recent voting numbers giving him less. half the number of sets that Slate Likud has received.
Nonetheless, the move exacerbates efforts by Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid and New Hope leader Gideon Sa’ar – the leaders of the second largest and third largest parties, respectively – to form a government. If either performs well enough on election day and the right-wing bloc refuses to budge, the more centrist parties will be looked elsewhere for the coalition partners, be it that along with Meretz, Labor or perhaps the Coalition or Ra’am if the majority -Arabic parties agree to offer support from the opposition. If, and rightly so, a religious bloc does not join at least 61 seats next month, the country could be at the head of the fifth election in less than three years.
Avigdor Liberman, who is in charge of the secular party, right-wing Yisrael Beytenu, re-established the “messianic bloc” in a tweet calling on Lapid, Sa’ar and Bennett to “join my campaign and promise to create a Zionist and liberal government. without English Judaism and United Torah. ”
