Finance minister said to back bill to ensure only party leaders can form gov't

Kulanu leader agrees lacuna in law governing presidential powers must be sealed; support comes after Netanyahu accuses Likud rival of attempting coup after next election

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon cautiously backed an amendment to a quasi-constitutional law that would restrict the president’s powers in picking a political leader to form a coalition after national elections, according to a television report on Sunday.

According to Hadashot news, the revision would ensure that only the leader of each elected political party should have the right to form a government and not any other figure on the parties’ lists.

Under current law, after elections, the president consults with the heads of all factions before asking the lawmaker deemed to have the best chances of forming a government to begin negotiations with potential coalition partners. The person tasked with forming a government is generally the one that receives the most recommendations from other parties, and is usually — but not necessarily — the head of the party that has won the largest number of seats.

Talk of the amendment came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month claimed a former senior member of his Likud party was trying to oust him following the next elections, with the help of the president. Netanyahu accused former Likud minister Gideon Sa’ar of trying to orchestrate a “coup” that would see him ascend to the Likud leadership and the premiership after the next elections. Sa’ar is a popular former strongman seen as a potential challenger to Netanyahu.

Sa’ar has demanded that Netanyahu either provide evidence or retract his claim.

Netanyahu’s accusation against Sa’ar came after the pro-Netanyahu newspaper Israel Hayom reported that the prime minister is delaying calling early elections amid fears that President Reuven Rivlin would task Sa’ar with forming a government. According to the report, Rivlin has been mulling the possibility of tasking someone other than Netanyahu with forming the government — another MK within Likud, if the party wins resoundingly, or a lawmaker from another party, if the margin of victory is narrower — in light of the ongoing corruption investigations against the prime minister.

President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during a memorial service marking 23 years since the assassination of late Israeli Prime Minsiter Yitzhak Rabin, held at Mount Herzl cemetery in Jerusalem, on October 21, 2018. (Marc Israel Sellem/POOL)

As a result of the claims, Kahlon recently told his faction’s chair MK Roy Folkman and other officials that there is a “hole in the laws” governing presidential powers that grant the president the right to task any lawmaker with forming a coalition.

Kahlon said that although the party would back a change in the law limiting the president to select a candidate only from among the party leaders, “we will not agree to any other adjustment.”

According to the report, in light of Kulanu’s support for the idea, other coalition parties are likely to follow, including the Jewish Home and Shas parties.

Such legislation would require changing the president’s powers as described in Basic Laws of the country, which like a constitution underpin Israel’s legal system and are more difficult to repeal than regular laws.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then education minister Gideon Sa’ar (L) attend an award ceremony hosted by the Trump Foundation, at Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem, on December 25, 2012. (Miriam Alster/ Flash90)

Sa’ar was a rising star in Likud until he took a timeout from politics. Analysts consider him a top contender for the premiership in a post-Netanyahu era, and he enjoys high popularity among Likud activists.

The next elections must take place by November 2019, but recent reports have suggested that Netanyahu is considering taking the country to the polls as early as next March amid a series of corruption investigations involving him.