The Labor-Gesher and Meretz parties announced on Monday that they will merge ahead of the March 2 elections.
The decision followed what insiders in both parties described as marathon talks between Labor Leader Amir Peretz and Meretz head Nitzan Horowitz. Both left-wing parties fear one of them could fail to clear the 3.25% electoral threshold – roughly four Knesset seats – necessary to enter parliament and seek to Left's electoral appeal.
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"This is a significant move for the 2020 election, which will ensure the ability to form a government of change and hope," Peretz and Horowitz said in a joint statement, adding that new, forthcoming political alliance will serve as "the social heart and diplomatic compass for the next government after the end of the Netanyahu era."
Previous talks between the parties, ahead of the April 9, and Sept. 17, 2019 elections, failed. Ahead of September's elections, Labor instead merged with Gesher, headed by Orly Levy-Abekasis, a former Yisrael Beytenu lawmaker, while Meretz partnered with former Labor politicians to form the Democratic Union.
According to the deal struck between the two parties, Labor-Gesher will have six of the first 11 spots in the new slate while Meretz will have five.
Peretz will lead the new faction, with Levy-Abekasis at the no. 2 slot and Horowitz at no. 3.
They will be followed Meretz MK Tamar Zandberg and Labor MKs Itzik Shmuli and Merav Michaeli.
Former IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Yair Golan, who merged with Meretz in the last election, will be placed seventh, followed by Labor MKs Omer Barlev and Revital Swid, and Meretz's Issawi Frej at the 11th spot.
Former Labor MK Stav Shaffir, who ahead of September's elections was placed second on the Democratic Union's slate, was not included in the new union, though officials in both parties did not rule out a future alliance with Shaffir, who currently heads the Green Party.
Briefing his party on the merger, Peretz reportedly said, "We have no choice but to unite,"
Senior Labor MK Itzik Shmuli said on Sunday morning that he supported a merger, but only as a "technical bloc" that could potentially separate soon after the elections.
