Israeli president starts government formation talks next week

The court process against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for corruption continues on the same day, Israeli media recall.

Rivlin, whose role in the country's political life is largely ceremonial, will also talk to the candidates proposed by the parties for prime minister and he is expected to announce 7 April, which one of them will trust the post.

It is customary for Israel's president to believe the formation of the government member of Knesset, who has the largest support of MPs, the leader of the largest party respectively, but he can elect any of the 120 MPs.

Rivlin's task this time around won't be easy because after the elections, no bloc of parties has an open path towards the parliamentary majority, according to the Associated Press.

Benjamin Netanyah's conservative Likud party won mostly, 30 seats, but with its traditional allies, religious parties and nationalists, it has only 52 deputies.

Netanyah's opponents secured 57 seats in parliament with 120 deputies, but neither do they have a majority, while the two parties have not yet decided which side they will support.

The prime minister-designate will have a maximum of six weeks to conclude a coalition deal with other parties.

Parties that want Netanyah's departure have less common than right-wing factions that can join.

Still, support for Netanyah has fallen because of fraud and abuse in three cases, including bribery.

Presenting evidence in the judicial process will begin next week, which may be unpleasant and will take the time of Netanyah, who has been prime minister for the longest time in the country's history -- a total of 15, and consistently 12 years.

Netanyahu denies having done anything wrong and accuses police, media and prosecutors of “witch's trial”.

The answer to the question of whether Israel can form a new government will not be known for weeks, but the possibility of a fifth election is not ruled out in just over two years.

Party leaders are already negotiating a possible alliance, though this is only the beginning.

Netanyah was supported today by the ultra-orthodox Jewish party Shas, as expected.

Israeli opposition leader who heads the Yesh Attid centre's party, Jair Lapid, met with leaders of other parties.

The coalition formation could be decided by a small Islamic party of Israeli Arabs that supported neither party nor former Netanyah allies, now rivals, party leader Jamina Naphtalii Bennett, Gideon Sar, leader of the new New Hope party and Benny Ganz, leader of the blue and white party. If they at least agree on something, there will be no fifth choice.

The political crisis in Israel, a country with a population of 9.3 million, has long continued. Despite leading one of the world's most successful vaccine campaigns, Israel could hardly formulate a consistent policy.

As of this week, the transitional government will run the country again until a governing coalition is formed or new elections are held.

No party has managed to form a government since the 2019 elections, but in May last year, after the third elections, Netanyahu and Ganz agreed to form an extraordinary national unity government to fight pandemic.

However, they failed to agree on a budget within the deadline, and new elections were called.

If the government is not formed this time again, the Knesset will be distributed again and elections will be held again within three months.