Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman, and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid hailed Israel’s new state budget for the next two years in a Saturday press conference, ending “three years of instability.”
Bennett also promised that he would “rotate” the prime ministership to Lapid in 2023 as agreed.
The Knesset passed Israel’s 2022 budget early Friday morning, clearing the complex legislation’s last hurdle after the 2021 budget was approved early Thursday, and capping a major success for Bennett’s unlikely ruling alliance of eight ideologically-disparate parties.
Failure to pass the 2021 budget before November 14 would have resulted in the dissolution of the government and snap elections, the fifth in two years.
By passing the budget “we have completed the complex process of getting Israel out of three years of instability,” Bennett said. “The government is stable. It will last out its term.”
He said the coalition had “passed a budget that will ensure political and financial stability… The fact that we are not in the midst of the fifth round of elections is a blessing and a great gift to the State of Israel.”
“Tomorrow morning… we begin,” he said.
A power-sharing deal will see Lapid take over as head of the government in September 2023, serving out the remainder of the government’s 4.5-year term, unless the government collapses before then.
Bennett was recently reported by the media to have expressed doubt the rotation of the premiership would happen. Asked on the matter Saturday, he vowed to fulfill his obligation and transfer the premier role to Lapid when the time comes.
“We will implement the rotation and the government will complete its days,” he said. Lapid, standing alongside him, concurred: “I’m convinced.”
The coalition gave final approval to the NIS 573 billion ($183 billion) state budget for 2022, far ahead of its March 2022 deadline, as the legislation passed its third reading shortly after 3 a.m. on Friday. The 2022 budget passed with a vote of 59 in favor and 56 against in the 120-seat Knesset.
The 2021 budget voted through on Thursday was far more urgent for the coalition, since a failure to pass it by its November 14 deadline would have meant the automatic dissolution of parliament. The 61-59 vote saw lawmakers vote along coalition-opposition lines just after 5 a.m. Thursday, following an all-night session.
The NIS 609 billion ($194 billion) spending plan for 2021 was the…
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