Bennett in closed meeting: Government will likely fall before Lapid becomes PM

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has reportedly said in a closed meeting held in the past month that he doesn’t expect his current power-sharing government to last until August 2023, when Foreign Minister Yair Lapid is expected to become premier as part of a rotation agreement.

“I estimate that the rotation will not happen,” Channel 12 news quotes Bennett as saying. “There is a considerable chance that the government will dissolve between the [passage of the] budget and the time of the change of power, for various reasons.”

Commenting on the report, Bennett’s office appears to confirm the details, but says Bennett “will fully honor the rotation deal, as he has been saying from the get-go.

“The partnership with Alternate Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid is based on mutual trust and fairness,” the response adds. “Ahead of the passage of the budget, which guarantees the stability of the government, there are predictable reports of various quotes from various times that were only said as estimations.

“The budget will pass and the partnership will continue.”