Election in Israel ends in deadlock and Netanyahu fails to reach a majority of 61 seats
With the highest participation since 1999, the vote does not give a majority to either the prime minister or the opposition and reopens the scenario of long negotiations or a new election, according to the WSJ
BY THE X-TRADER NEWS NEWSROOM · REPORTING FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL · 2 MIN
The election in Israel ended in a stalemate. According to reporter Anat Peled, from The Wall Street Journal, neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor the opposition come close to the 61 seats needed to form a government coalition, even with the participation of more than 77% of voters, the highest since 1999.
On Wednesday morning, at the campaign headquarters of Likud, Netanyahu's party, supporters and activists celebrated the fact that the party was ahead in the polls. The result, however, does not guarantee a parliamentary majority. The Arab-Israeli parties, in turn, had among the highest votes in their history, according to the report.
The open scenarios
The WSJ outlines three possible paths. The first is a unity government: Netanyahu would look for an opponent, perhaps Gadi Eisenkot, to reach 61 seats. This would require, according to the reporter, that promises made during the campaign be broken.
The second path is for the opposition to turn to Arab-Israeli parties to achieve a majority. But some of the opposing parties have already declared that they will not sit down with these parties or depend on their support, which, in practice, also leaves them without a majority.
The third is a new election. Before that, President Isaac Herzog must listen to the parties as soon as the results are released and indicate the name most likely to form a coalition. If that person fails, Herzog could hand off the task to another politician, and the process could drag on for many weeks.
A country divided around Netanyahu
The history weighs. Israel held five elections between 2019 and 2022, all centered on the same axis: the refusal of opposition parties to govern alongside Netanyahu. For the WSJ, the new result shows that the country remains deeply divided in relation to the prime minister.
The transcript does not contain data on stock market reactions, interest rates or exchange rates. For the investor, what can be said based on the report is that the political horizon in Israel remains undefined, with the possibility of weeks of negotiations or a new vote. How long this uncertainty will last is the central question in the coming days.
Automatically translated from Portuguese.
