During the presentation of Yesh Atid’s platform on Monday in Tel Aviv, party leader Yair Lapid responds in the negative when a Haaretz reporter asks him whether he will stick by his commitment from the last election to recommend that the president entrust the leader of the strongest party with the building of the next coalition.
According to Israeli law, the prime minister is appointed by the president, based on recommendations of the leaders of all the parties that won seats in the Knesset. While the president – on principle – can choose as he wishes, in Israel’s history the president has never gone squarely against the recommendations of party leaders.
During the previous government, Netanyahu was prime minister despite his Likud party having won fewer seats in the Knesset than the Kadima party. At the time, Netanyahu was able to establish a right-wing bloc majority coalition, while then Kadima leader Tzipi Livni could not cobble together a government.
Lapid, when he established his party, said he would always recommend the leader of the party with the most seats. On Monday his platform omitted this commitment.
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From the Liveblog of
Monday, March 2, 2015
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