israel elections 2022 who won who lost

Israel’s highest turnout in decades reopens former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s path to power. In the elections of November 1, with the count of 62% of the seats, the Likud (right) still advances and asserts itself as the first party with 33 seats out of 120.

Followed by the centrists of Yair Lapid (25 seats), the far-right religious Zionism party (14), by the centrists of Benny Gantz (12) and the orthodox party Shas (12). In the center-left zone, three lists – Meretz, Raam and Balad – are currently under the threshold for entering the Knesset (the unicameral Parliament of Israel) even if it is not far from it. Kan public television calculates that if the result of the poll confirms these figures, the blockade of parties that support Netanyahu will obtain a clear majority.

Photo Ansa / Epa Abir Sultan

“We are close to a great victory,” Netanyahu told supporters gathered in Jerusalem. King Bibi, as his supporters call him, is preparing to take back the scepter in the fifth elections in 3 years. “Until the last envelope, nothing says it’s over,” said outgoing Prime Minister Lapid. Exit polls give the right-wing coalition 61-62 seats out of 120, enough to govern, and 54-55 seats for Yesh Atid (Lapid’s party). A victory that can bring back the longest-serving prime minister in Israel’s history, even more so than the father of the country, David Ben-Gurion.

Israel, the shadow of the far right

But the vote in Israel also marks a boom in the religious Zionism of Itamar Ben Gvir, the racist anti-Arab right-wing radical who wants to annex the entire West Bank without granting Palestinian rights. He – and his companion Bezalel Smotrich – would win 14-15 seats: a historic victory, according to all analysts and commentators. A success that Ben Gvir has already mortgaged by soliciting the Ministry of Public Security in recent days. It will be difficult for Netanyahu to do without these seats. Although the United States and the Gulf countries, led by the Arab Emirates, have warned “Bibi“. Then there are the religious parties, Labour, the left Meretz, the Arab Islamist party of Mansour Abbas (great ally of Lapid). While the Hadash Taal Communists remain on the outside.

Itamar Ben Gvir. Photo Ansa / Epa Abir Sultan

The striking figure, however, was that of turnout: at 8 p.m. on November 1, it was 66.3%, i.e. almost 6 points more than in the March 2021 elections. In any case, it is the most loaded since 1999. Aware of the challenges of unblocking the In the political deadlock that has gripped Israel, all parties – none excluded – have repeatedly called on their electorate to go to the polls. Starting with the outgoing Prime Minister of Israel, Yair Lapid, who encouraged the Israelis to express their choices. “Go vote today for the future of our children and that of our country”. Binyamin Netanyahu was no less.

Prime Minister Netanyahu

Ben Gvir did the same pressing, which even rented a helicopter to go to the central area of ​​the country. The entire current Lapid bloc has erected a wall against him, denouncing what he has defined as a racist and fascist ideology. In the evening, Lapid and Netanyahu’s latest appeal: Both to mobilize their constituents stressed that the blockades were “head to head.” But in the end, the Sorcerer, Netanyahu’s other nickname, seems to have won. He will almost certainly be Israel’s next prime minister.

outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid. Photo Ansa / Epa Jack Guez