Levin informs Knesset that Lapid has a coalition, but doesn’t set date for vote to swear it in

Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin formally informs the Knesset of Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid’s announcement last week that he is able to form a government.

But Levin, a member of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud party, doesn’t specify what day the swearing-in vote will be held. The latest possible date is June 14.

“An announcement on when the swearing-in vote will be held will be issued later,” he says.

Levin’s move appears aimed at giving more time to Netanyahu and his right-wing religious bloc to try to thwart the “change government,” whose prospective members have called for a vote to swiftly be held. The new, eight-party coalition, in which Yamina leader Naftali Bennett is set to serve as prime minister for the first two years, appears to have the support of 61 of the 120 members of Knesset.