Jakarta –
Former minister Amir Ohana he was elected speaker of the Israeli parliament Thursday local time. Amir Ohana is the first openly gay person to hold the position in Israeli history.
Serving as a member of parliament since 2015, Amir Ohana is a member of the right-wing Likud party, AFP reported on Thursday (29/12/2022). Israel’s parliament votes to approve a new government led by incoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Of the 120 MPs, 63 voted in favor of the new government, while 54 voted against.
Previously, Netanyahu had formed his government with the support of ultra-Orthodox and right-wing parties after the November elections.
Israeli politics is expected to shift further to the right, following Benjamin Netanyahu’s success in forming a majority coalition involving far-right parties for the first time.
The general chairman of the Likud party briefed President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday (21/12), shortly before the deadline. Netanyahu, who has been prime minister twice, won 32 Knesset seats after his fifth election in four years last November. To govern, he needed at least 61 seats.
Netanyahu’s return to power was achieved thanks to the support of the far-right Religious Zionist Party, or Tkuma. He has also formed a coalition with two other ultra-religious parties.
He inherited power from a coalition of former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid. The eight-party cross-spectrum ruling coalition split last June due to internal infighting. In the last election, Lapid’s Future Party was the second most powerful in parliament with 24 seats.
Under the coalition agreement reached in early December, Tkuma President Bezalel Smotrich will oversee the finance and defense ministries, which are responsible for Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, Palestine.
(deck/knv)
