The Israeli government wants to dissolve parliament and hold new elections in October. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Jair Lapid announced this in a joint statement on Monday, which was quoted by the Jerusalem Post newspaper, among others.
A corresponding bill is to be brought before Parliament next week. All “attempts to stabilize the coalition” have been “exhausted,” it said.
After the dissolution of the Knesset and until a new government is sworn in, the current foreign minister, Lapid, is to take over the office of prime minister. Bennett and Lapid wanted to hold a press conference later that evening.
Bennett’s coalition government has been in office for a year and has been shaky for some time. Parliamentary elections were last held in March 2021. Since then, a total of eight parties have formed the governing coalition. The coalition lost its razor-thin majority of 61 out of 120 seats in April after a lawmaker left the coalition. The opposition around ex-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is demanding Bennett’s resignation.
