Blue and White to sit out vote on bill barring Netanyahu from forming government

Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party says it won’t take part in a plenum vote tomorrow on an opposition bill that would prevent a Knesset member under indictment from forming a government, which would bar Prime Minister Netanyahu from assembling a coalition.

“Our principled stance on the matter hasn’t changed and won’t change, but at this time, this is only an effort to undermine the stability of the entire political system,” Blue and White says in a statement.

Blue and White voiced support for the legislative proposal before agreeing to form a government with Netanyahu after inconclusive elections in March, the third in over a year. Blue and White and Netanyahu’s Likud party are now at odds over the passage of a state budget and face an August 25 deadline to pass one or new elections will be called.

“In the middle of one of the gravest crises in the country’s history, we’re choosing to do everything to prevent elections that will bring an economic disaster on the economy and rip Israeli society to shreds,” Gantz’s party says.

It also reiterates its call for the government to pass a budget through 2021, as agreed with Likud as part of the coalition deal between the parties.

Netanyahu on the other hand again called for a budget that only covers the rest of the year, which he says is needed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

A failure to pass a budget or the approval of a short-term one could allow Netanyahu to go to new elections without having to hand over the premiership to Gantz as part of their power-sharing agreement, leading to speculation he was forcing the budget crisis as a political stratagem.