Israel’s acting Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Thursday congratulated Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu on the victory of the right-wing bloc in Tuesday’s legislative elections, as the provisional tally shows little room for surprise.
Lapid called Netanyahu to congratulate him personally and ordered all departments to facilitate an orderly transition, while waiting for the final results to be known and the president, Isaac Herzog, to entrust the Likud leader with the task of forming a government.
«The State of Israel is above any political consideration», Lapid has defended, who has wished «luck» to his political rival for the good of the citizens and of the country as a whole, according to the newspaper ‘The Jerusalem Post’.
The Electoral Commission plans to release the final results on Thursday, although on Thursday the preliminary statistics still gave the bloc headed by Netanyahu 64 seats, enough to dominate a Parliament in which there are 120 legislators.
Likud will foreseeably have as its main ally Religious Zionism, which for the first time has placed an ultra-right party as the third most voted party and will have 15 seats in the next legislature.
