Netanyahu secures wafer-thin coalition

Israel's ruling rightwing Likud party clinched a coalition with the far-right Jewish Home party on Wednesday evening less than two hours before a midnight deadline.

The deal paves the way for a fourth term in office for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, albeit with his narrowest coalition yet.

The deal will give Mr Netanyahu the support he needs to form a government of rightwing and Jewish ultra-Orthodox parties controlling 61 seats in total, a slender majority in the 120-seat Knesset.

"I am honoured to inform you that I have been successful in forming a government, which I will request be brought before the Knesset for its approval as soon as possible," Mr Netanyahu wrote to Reuven Rivlin, Israel's president. The new government is expected to be sworn in next week.

Naftali Bennett's Jewish Home is to receive the justice ministry in the next government, along with the education and agriculture portfolios, after holding out for greater concessions from Likud in negotiations that ran down to the wire.

If Mr Netanyahu had failed to secure backing for a government by midnight, Mr Rivlin would have called on another MP, most likely either Isaac Herzog, head of the number-two ranked Zionist Union, or another member of Likud to attempt forming a coalition.

Israel has had governments in the past that held a 61-seat majority, including under leftwing Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in the early 1990s, but none lasted long.

"It's an anorexic coalition." said Amit Segal, chief political correspondent for Israel's Channel 2 TV. "Technically one can function with a 61-seat coalition, but there is not a single case where a 61-seat coalition has survived for four years."

Ze'ev Elkin, a member of the Likud negotiating team, said his party and Jewish Home would work toward finalising their deal on Thursday.

Mr Bennett was a partner with Likud in Mr Netanyahu's last government, but relations between the two men soured during a rancorous election campaign in which Likud poached far-right voters from Jewish Home in order to stave off a feared defeat by Mr Herzog's centre-left Zionist Union.

Mr Netanyahu called a snap election in December with the aim of securing a stronger rightwing mandate, but has emerged with a weaker grip on power. The coalition talks ran the full 42 days allowed under Israeli law, and exposed the vulnerabilities of a politician known for his political acumen, sometimes nicknamed "King Bibi".

Before Wednesday evening's deal with Jewish Home, his Likud party already had the backing of Moshe Kahlon's centre-right Kulanu and the Shas and United Torah Judaism parties.

However Avigdor Lieberman, foreign minister and a former ally of Mr Netanyahu, threw a wrench into coalition talks on Monday when he said he would not be joining the next government, depriving it of six seats that would have given it a more comfortable 67-seat majority. Mr Bennett's party then pressed its advantage, holding out for the justice ministry, expected to go to its MP Ayelet Shaked.

© The Financial Times Limited 2015. All rights reserved.
FT and Financial Times are trademarks of the Financial Times Ltd.
Not to be redistributed, copied or modified in any way.
Euro2day.gr is solely responsible for providing this translation and the Financial Times Limited does not accept any liability for the accuracy or quality of the translation