Netanyahu arrives today for negotiations with the political parties at the Jerusalem hotel (Photo: Yonatan Zindel – Flash 90)
The president of the country, Yitzhak Herzog, began the consultation process earlier today (Wednesday) and representatives of the factions – Likud, Yesh Atid, the state camp and Shas went to his residence, with the round expected to last until Friday, when he will entrust the formation of the government to Benjamin Netanyahu.
The round of consultations with the President is a formal procedure, where there is no doubt that the President will entrust the formation of the government to Netanyahu, also because the majority of the ‘Bloc of Change’ will probably not recommend Yair Lapid for the position of Prime Minister.
Therefore, Netanyahu, together with the representatives of the parties, is constantly busy assembling the next government and trying to create agreements, when, as reported earlier in ‘Shabbat Square’, he plans to form a government as soon as possible, even as early as next Wednesday.
According to the publication in ‘News 12’, one of the things that the parties of the right-wing bloc have already reached agreements on is the size of the government, which according to the plan is going to have 30 ministers (the outgoing government had 27 ministers, but the government only had 61 MKs. 13 ), according to a minister’s key for every two members of the Knesset.
Since the issuing government will expand the Norwegian law, according to what appears in the next Knesset, we are going to see many members of the Norwegian Knesset.
So far, four parties have reached the presidency, Likud and Shas recommended Benjamin Netanyahu, Yesh Atid Yair Lapid, while in the state camp, they refused to recommend Lapid and refrained from making a recommendation. In summary: 43 recommended Netanyahu, 24 Lapid and 12 refrained.
President Herzog is expected to announce this coming Sunday that after hearing all the parties, he recommends Netanyahu. During the dialogue with the parties, Herzog said that he denies the reports that he is working to establish a unity government and made it clear that he does not intend to intervene.
Likud’s representative to the president, Knesset member Yariv Levin, who is to receive a senior position in the upcoming government, said after leaving the president’s house: “We received a clear mandate to govern and we intend to do so. We are at the peak of coalition negotiations, at the end of which the conclusions will reach the public – we will also introduce the overcoming paragraph”.
As reported earlier in the Shabbat Square, the prime minister-designate, Benjamin Netanyahu, met today (Wednesday) with senior members of the right-wing bloc and officially began negotiations to form his sixth government. Significant progress has been made between the parties.
After the president’s house, Levin returned to the negotiation talks
Netanyahu said during the meetings that he intends to swear in a government in the coming days and reach the Knesset swearing-in next week, with signed coalition agreements, thus significantly speeding up the process of the change of government.
The Shabbat Square has learned that Netanyahu has agreed to the demand of Knesset members Moshe Gafni and Bezalel Smotrich and that the “surmounting clause” clause will be included in the principle document of the coalition agreements, alongside the distribution of the cases. As for the rest of the issues and demands, the parties will discuss and come to authority after the establishment of the government.
Goldknopf and Porush at the entrance to the negotiations, today
At the end of the meeting between Netanyahu and Gafni, Gafni said: “The meeting was conducted in a good atmosphere and significant progress was made and it was agreed that the meetings will continue towards the formation of the government soon.”
The Smotrich office also reported significant progress in the negotiations and at the end of the meeting with Netanyahu it was reported: “The meeting was conducted in a good atmosphere and significant progress was made towards the establishment of a national government.”