Netanyahu renounces mandate to form government, now entrusted to Gantz

President Rivlin acts on Likud leader’s failure and commissions rival of the centrist Blue White coalition. Gantz wants to form a "liberal" unity government, but does not have a majority in Parliament. The country destined for the third election since April.

Jerusalem (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has given up the formation of a new government. President Reuven Rivlin has now entrusted Benny Gantz with an exploratory mandate.

The leader of the centrist Blue White coalition now has 72 hours to accept the mandate and 28 days to look for a majority in Parliament, perhaps definitively ending the leadership of the right wing opposition.

Netanyahu, head of Likud, admitted that he could not form an executive. "In recent weeks - he said yesterday, also his 70th birthday - I made every effort to bring Benny Gantz to the negotiating table, every effort to create a wide-ranging national unity government, every attempt to avert another election ".

The elections of September 17th confirmed a stalemate, which effectively prevents one of the two most important camps from giving birth to a majority that can count on at least 61 seats (out of a total of 120) in the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament.

While surviving on a political level and escaping trials, Netanyahu offered Gantz a unity government and an alternation of government leadership. The proposal was rejected by the centrist coalition leader.

Now it's up to Gantz, who cannot count - to date - on a solid electoral majority. Analysts and experts believe that even his efforts will fall on deaf ears and the country will have to vote for an unprecedented third time in April. In a note, the Blue White coalition says it is "determined to form a government of liberal unity".