Israel will hold snap elections, as the parliament was dissolved over a budget dispute, according to Israeli parliament speaker Yariv Levin, who made the announcement on TV on Tuesday.
These parliamentary elections for the unicameral Knesset will be the fourth in two years, as has been announced after the dissolution of the Knesset in the absence of a budget agreement.
According to a report, the new election is expected to be held on March 23, 2021, as new elections must be held three months after the dispersal of the Knesset.
Earlier on Tuesday, while making a speech in parliament, Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed his political rival Benny Gantz of the centrist Blue and White party for the ongoing political crisis.
“I think at the current time, we should have united forces to find a way to avert these needless elections,” Netanyahu said, in an attempt to delay the dissolution of the government.
Reportedly, Netanyahu's conservative Likud party, which controls the government's finances, refused to present a budget, violating his coalition agreement with Gantz, which in turn was the reason for the government breakdown.
Netanyahu took to Twitter to comment on the upcoming election, expressing hopes of winning it with Likud.
הדרך היחידה להביא ממשלת ימין-על-מלא ולהגשים את כל החלומות של הימין זה להצביע רק לליכוד, כי כל הפוליטיקאים חייבים את לפיד והשמאל כדי להרכיב ממשלה. pic.twitter.com/SFqOOgifZ7
— Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) December 22, 2020
Netanyahu and Gantz formed a coalition in May, following three elections resulting in failures to form a joint government, with the condition that Gantz would become the Jewish state's prime minister next year, instead of Netanyahu.
