No surprise: Likud recommends Netanyahu to be entrusted with forming a government
The Likud party faction came to the consultations at President’s HQ Beit HaNasi today and recommended that Benjamin Netanyahu be entrusted with forming a government.
Photo: Mark Neyman
The Likud delegation comprised Ministers Tzachi Hanegbi, Ofir Akunis and Amir Ohana and Likud Knesset faction manager Aliza Broshi.
The Yesh Atid party faction recommended that Yair Lapid be entrusted with forming a government.
The Yesh Atid delegation comprised MKs Orna Barbivai, Meir Cohen and Karin Elharrar.
As is customary, the president will meet with representatives of the parties, will hear their recommendations and at the end of the process will announce a Knesset Member who will be entrusted with forming a government. Once the president has nominated a candidate, that Knesset Member will have 28 days, according to Basic Law: The Government (2001), to form a new government. If additional time is required, the president is authorized to grant an extension of up to 14 days, according to law.
At the opening of the consultations, the president said: “With the end of the election campaign for the 24th Knesset, we are now beginning the round of consultations ahead of entrusting a Knesset Member with the task of forming a government. The process of nominating a candidate to form a government by the president is established in Basic Law: The Government (2001). Paragraph 7 of that law says, ‘When a new Government has to be constituted, the President of the State shall, after consultation with representatives of party groups in the Knesset, assign the task of forming a Government to a Knesset Member who has notified him that he is prepared to accept the task’.
That is the language of the law. The aim of the process that the law sets out is to bring about the formation of a government that will have the confidence of the new Knesset that has been elected by the people. And therefore, and as I have said in the past, and as I say again now, the main consideration that will guide me is entrusting a Knesset Member with the task who has the best chance of forming a government that will have the confidence of the new Knesset. This is how all previous Israeli presidents have acted, this is how I acted in previous elections and this is how I will act now. During the day, the elected representatives will come to Beit HaNasi, the house of the Israeli people, and will make their voices – your voices – heard. This round of consultations, just as the previous rounds since I took office, will be transparent and open to the public as a reflection of our commitment to be as visible as possible to Israeli citizens.”
