Likud, the conservative party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is set to win 31 seats in the Knesset: a result that makes it the first force in the Israeli parliament, but far from the 61 necessary for the majority. With this scenario, the country risks finding itself in a new political stalemate, hanging on the formation of an alliance that guarantees the minimum threshold of seats to govern.
This is what emerges from the exit polls of the public broadcaster Kan. The polls closed at 10pm, 9pm Italian time. At 8 pm, 60.9% of those entitled to vote had voted, almost five percentage points lower than the last round of elections.
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On the other hand, we are talking about the fourth return to the polls in less than two years, a record even compared to the extreme volatility of national politics. The vote was considered, by both sides, as a sort of referendum on the premier who has remained in the saddle for the last four terms. Netanyahu is grappling with three corruption trials and finds himself against fierce opposition, even within the right, but he has found a relevant foothold in the “vaccine effect”: the success of the
anti-Covid drug inoculation campaign, with a pace and effectiveness above the global average, has become a winning political argument in the electoral campaign. Its main challenger is Yair Lapid, secular and centrist, in turn determined to play the entire battle at the polls as an either / or of Netanyahu’s government of “darkness and racism”.
Rocket from Gaza to Beersheva, in the city was Netanyahu
The atmosphere is tense. A rocket from Gaza landed in southern Israel. The military spokesman made it known, adding that there were no casualties. According to media reports, the rocket struck an uninhabited area near Beersheva and the attack came shortly after Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu finished an election in the city. According to other media, Netanyahu was still at the meeting place and was dismissed. The episode is similar to that of September 2019 when a rocket was launched from the Strip as Netanyahu was engaged in a rally in Ashkelon and left the stage.