President Reuven Rivlin on Sunday rejected a request by Blue&White Chairman Benny Gantz to extend his mandate to establish a coalition government for another two weeks. Gantz’s mandate will expire Monday at midnight.
Rivlin informed Gantz that “Under the current circumstances, extending the coalition cobbling work will not be possible.”
The President noted in his statement that if by midnight Monday, Gantz and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not sign a coalition agreement, the mandate would return to the Knesset, and will not be transferred to Netanyahu.
The president also noted that in a conversation with Netanyahu, the prime minister did not confirm that he and Gantz were close to signing a deal.
“The president reached this decision after also talking to Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu, who did not confirm that the two are close to signing an agreement that would lead to a unity government,” the president’s statement read.
The transfer of the mandate to the Knesset means that the process of establishing a new coalition government would be completely controlled by Blue&White, which has the chairmanship of the Regulating Committee (MK Avi Nissenkorn) as well as the Speaker of the House – MK Benny Gantz.
A source in Blue&White told Reshet Bet radio that the party is pleased with the president’s decision to hand the mandate over to the Knesset because they can once again threaten Netanyahu with legislation against permitting an MK who faces criminal indictments to become prime minister.
Apparently, the coalition talks broke down when Likud demanded a veto power in the Judicial Selection Committee, as well as basic legislation that would block the High Court of Justice from ruling that Netanyahu cannot serve as prime minister due to his indictments.
Indeed, a petition was filed with the High Court moments after the president’s announcement, asking to ban Netanyahu from receiving a mandate. Various versions of the same petition have been filed in the past, and to date the court threw them out since the mandate had been given to Gantz.
Meanwhile, in a joint announcement, the leaders of Likud, Shas, United Torah Judaism, Yamina and Gesher called on President Rivlin to transfer the mandate from Gantz to Netanyahu, who now enjoys 59 recommendations, including one from Gesher Chairwoman Orly Levy-Abekasis, who on Sunday jumped ship to join the rightwing bloc (see: Orly Levy-Abekasis Officially Joins Netanyahu’s Camp, Upping Right to 59).
The rightwing bloc reminded President Rivlin that last time around, in October 2019, when Netanyahu had been unable to establish a coalition government, Rivlin passed the mandate to MK Benny Gantz who only had 54 recommendations at the time.
The president has until Monday at midnight to change his mind and give Netanyahu an opportunity to put together a government.