On Wednesday, Blue and White and Likud party officials reportedly warned that the chances of forming a unity government were increasingly slim, making it likely that Israel will have its third election in under a year.
After the mandate to form a Government was passed to Blue and White’s Benny Gantz earlier this month following Netanyahu’s failure to do so, talks on assembling a unity government appear to have failed to make progress, with the largest two parties divided on a number of key issues.
A Blue and White official spoke to Channel 12 on Wednesday, explaining that recent developments were making a unity government more difficult to achieve, referring to an investigation of Netanyahu’s top political aides for suspected harassment of a state witness in Netanyahu’s corruption case alongside protests in support of the former Prime Minister.
On the other hand, a Likud official blamed the impasse on Blue and White, stating: “The person we’re meeting with [Gantz] is not the one who decides”, implying Gantz’s fellow party leaders were the ones in control.
Gantz has 21 days left to form a government before the mandate to do so goes to the Knesset, which will then have three weeks to nominate a new candidate for Prime Minister. If that does not happen, an unprecedented third election in a year will be called.
