After parliament narrowly rejected a bill to delay a midnight deadline for approval of the country’s budget, Israel’s government appeared to be hours from collapse early Tuesday.
The Knesset immediately dissolves and a fourth election in two years will be called with the country in the middle of a coronavirus-related health and economic crisis if a budget package is not passed by that cutoff. Lawmakers defeated the bill by a vote of 49-47 to push off the deadline until Dec. 31.
The election date of March 16 was preliminarily accepted, but political observers said the vote would be more likely to take place on March 23.
After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu balked at honouring his coalition deal to approve an investment plan by 2021, the budget crisis exploded. A budget for this year alone will give him leeway to bring down the government over the investment plan for 2021, until Defense Minister Benny Gantz takes over as premier under their power-sharing next November.
