Shaked-led Yamina would give Netanyahu majority needed to form coalition — poll

Channel 12 releases a survey conducted earlier today, which indicates that Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu would have enough support after the upcoming elections to form a right-wing coalition if Ayelet Shaked leads the Yamina party following Naftali Bennett’s decision not to run again.

The poll predicted Yamina under Shaked would win five seats if elections were held today.

Shaked has indicated that she is willing to sit in a right-wing government led by Netanyahu, unlike Bennett who argued last week that a solely right-wing government would be disastrous for Israel.

Channel 12 has the parties receiving the following number of seats if Shaked leads Yamina:

Likud: 34
Yesh Atid: 20
Blue and White: 9
Religious Zionism: 9
Shas: 8
UTJ: 7
Joint List: 6
Labor: 5
Yisrael Beytenu: 5
Yamina: 5
Ra’am: 4
Meretz: 4
New Hope: 4

In the current bloc breakdown, the Netanyahu bloc would be made up of 58 MKs while the coalition would have 56 MKs. However, if Shaked joins Netanyahu with Yamina’s five MKs, it would enable a homogenous, right-wing government of 63 MKs.

The survey also tests how many seats a joint Blue and White-New Hope list would receive, and the result is encouraging for the two factions — 15 seats, a better showing than they have seen recently in polls when running separately.