Israel’s Parliament was dissolved at midnight on Tuesday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Opposition Leader and Defense Minister Benny Gantz failed to reach an agreement on the 2020 Budgets , so the country is heading to new elections on March 23, the fourth in two years.
This Tuesday’s session comes after the Knesset managed to reach an agreement to extend the financial safety net in 2021 in the absence of a pact on the Budgets, a few hours after its legal deadline expired, which would allow the authorities keep the health system services active amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The bill, admitted for processing on Monday, contemplated postponing the deadline for the approval of the 2020 Budgets from December 23 to 31, although with the rejection by a narrow margin –49 to 47 legislators–, the Knesset has been dissolved at midnight on Tuesday, when the deadline has expired.
Netanyahu has pointed to “internal struggles” within the Blue and White opposition party as responsible for not being able to achieve this agreement, while from the opposition Gantz has questioned the legitimacy of the Israeli prime minister, recalling his problems with justice.
“The Likud did not want these elections. We have voted time and again against a new election. Unfortunately, Benny Gantz has not fulfilled his agreements with us,” said Netanyahu, who has predicted a “big” victory in the March elections.
From Azul and Blanco they suspect that the intentions of Netanyahu, who is being investigated for various crimes of corruption, including fraud and accepting bribes, is to break the power-sharing agreement and try to form a new government with which he would be able to appoint new ones. charges in the court system and thus get rid of the charges against you.
The recriminations of Gantz have been directed in that way on Tuesday, who has criticized the Israeli prime minister, lamenting that “a man with three accusations” is “dragging” the country to its fourth elections.
“If there was no trial, there would already be a budget and there would be no elections,” he said, reports the newspaper ‘The Jerusalem Post’.
VOTING INTENTION
However, a new election does not seem the best scenario for Blue and White, according to the Israeli media, as they even doubt that the Gantz formation can even achieve representation.
Unlike the forces of the right, such as Nueva Esperanza, the former Likud deputy, Gideon Saar; or the extreme right represented by the Yamina party, who present themselves as Netanyahu’s next great rivals.
The discussions on the Budgets take place in the context of tensions within the unity government, which came to light in April after Gantz decided by surprise to back down on his electoral promise not to ally with Netanyahu under the argument of avoid new elections.
The agreement contemplates that Gantz occupies the Defense portfolio and is deputy prime minister during the 18 months in which Netanyahu will continue as prime minister, at which time he will replace him at the head of the Israeli Executive, a decision that fractured Blue and White and caused the departure of several parties from the opposition coalition.
