Exit polls show former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on track to victory in the country’s general election. The projections give the right-wing bloc only a few seats compared to its centre-left rivals, led by current prime minister Yair Lapid.
Such an outcome would mark a dramatic comeback for Netanyahu, who left power last year after staying in power for 12 years.
“We are close to a great victory,” he told his supporters in Jerusalem.
The election was widely seen as a vote for or against Netanyahu’s return. Exit polls show your bloc will have either 61 or 62 seats in the 120-seat Knesset (called Parliament).
With the vote counting just under 85% on Tuesday, 1st Netanyahu’s party is predicted to win up to 65 seats. However, this may change as the remaining banknotes are processed.
To secure a parliamentary majority, Netanyahu and the Likud party will depend on the support of the ultra-nationalist and radical right National Religious Party. Its leaders became notorious for using anti-Arab rhetoric and advocating the deportation of “disloyal” politicians or civilians.
“We won a huge vote of confidence from the Israeli people,” he told supporters at his party’s Likud headquarters.
Since the release of the exit polls hours before the voting ended, the hall has become a celebratory scene with people bouncing up and down, waving flags and chanting Netanyahu’s nickname, Bibi.
A man repeatedly blew the shofar, or ram’s horn, a ritual instrument used by some Jews at moments of special significance.
But Prime Minister Lapid, at his party headquarters in Tel Aviv, told his supporters that “nothing” has yet been decided and that the centre-left Yesh Atid party will await the final results.
Netanyahu, 73, is one of Israel’s most controversial political figures, hated by many on the center and left, but worshiped by Likud’s grassroots supporters.
He is a staunch supporter of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which has been occupied since the 1967 Middle East war. Although Israel objects to this, settlements here are considered illegal under international law.
It opposes the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – a formula supported by most of the international community, including the Biden administration in the US.
Netanyahu is also facing charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust – charges he vehemently denies. His potential partners in the Likud-led coalition government have said they will reform the law in a move that will stop his lawsuit.
According to exit polls, Likud is expected to be the largest party, with 30 to 31 seats, commanding a majority with support from nationalist and religious parties.
Yesh Atid, who led the coalition that ousted Netanyahu in last year’s elections, is expected to win between 22 and 24 seats.
The National Religious Party appears to have won 14 seats, making it the third largest party.
“It will be better now,” said Julian, a supporter, at the party space in Jerusalem. “When [o político do Partido Nacional Religioso Itamar Ben-Gvir] If he is the minister of public security, it will be even better – he will restore security to the people of Israel. This is really important.”
But political scientist Gayil Talshir of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has warned that if the exit polls “reflect real results, Israel is on track to become Orbán’s Hungary, recently dubbed an “electoral autocracy” by the European Union.
If the polls are approved, it would eliminate the possibility of a sixth election just four years after analysts predicted a stalemate.
This is a remarkable moment for Netanyahu, whose political future is largely set back after Lapid forged an unlikely alliance of ideologically diverse parties to seize power in June 2021, establishing a united goal to make it impossible for him to form a government. will indicate a return.
At the time, Netanyahu promised to overthrow him as soon as possible, and a year later, the coalition government decided it could not survive and collapsed after resignations meant it no longer had a majority.
source: Noticias
