Tel Aviv: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday urged political stability amid a looming coalition crisis, adding that he has accepted a compromise proposal that would delay the deadline for passing the state budget and remove the immediate threat of early elections.
According to a report in The Times of Israel, Derech Eretz, a political faction made up of two MPs, elected as part of the Blue and White alliance, proposed a bill on Sunday night that would postpone the August 25 deadline for approving the state budget. , allowing more time for Netanyahu and his coalition partner, Blue and White chief Benny Gantz, to reach an agreement.
“We must do everything possible to avoid elections and stabilize the government,” Netanyahu said on Monday.
“We need to do everything possible to avoid elections, stabilize the government, combat the coronavirus in terms of health, and fight for the reopening of the economy.
“That is what we are doing. I hope we are also doing it successfully,” he was quoted by The Times of Israel.
Under current law, the government, led by Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party and Gantz’s centrist Blue and White party, should approve the budget by August 25 or parliament will be automatically dissolved, the Xinhua news agency reports.
Gantz has also said that it has promised to postpone the deadline.
In recent weeks, Netanyahu and Gantz have been in dispute over the budget deadline, the former demanding that the budget covers only 2020 and the latter insisting that it also covers 2021.
If the government does not approve the budget before the deadline, Israel could find itself on track for the fourth round of elections in 16 months.
Neither party obtained enough votes to establish a government after the last elections in March.
In the wake of the political stalemate, an unprecedented power-sharing government was formed, with Netanyahu as prime minister and Gantz as “deputy prime minister” and defense minister. The two are expected to rotate after 18 months, under their power-sharing agreement.
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