Likud, Blue and White teams to meet to try and solve budget crisis

Representatives of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s Blue and White will meet tonight to try and solve the budget crisis, which will trigger elections if not resolved within 9 days, the Kan public broadcaster reports.

Netanyahu is insisting on passing a single-year budget (which would in practice only cover the remainder of 2020) despite the coalition deal mandating a two-year budget (which would cover the rest of 2020 and all of 2021), as demanded by Blue and White.

The true issue at hand is believed to be whether Gantz will become prime minister in November 2021, since failure to pass the budget is the only clear scenario that can trigger elections without Gantz automatically becoming transitional prime minister. If a budget is approved until the end of 2021, there will seemingly be no preventing Gantz from becoming premier in November 2021.