Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Wednesday that if Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid manages to swear in a government it would be a "dangerous left-wing government."
Netanyahu was speaking shortly after President Reuven Rivlin announced that Lapid was his new pick to form a government, a day after Netanyahu's presidential mandate had expired.
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"This will be a dangerous left-wing government, a lethal combination of a lack of vision, lack of competence and lack of responsibility," Netanyahu said, speaking about the efforts by Lapid to form a government with right-wing party Yamina.
"Yamina is reneging on each and every one of their promises… they talked about a unity government but this is just another way of saying that Yamina leader Naftali Bennett just wants to form a dangerous left-wing government… Don't fool the public just in order to service Bennett's ambition to be prime minister at all cost."
President Reuven Rivlin on Wednesday chose Lapid, who is the de-facto leader of the anti-Netanyahu bloc in the Knesset, to try to form a new government, but his path to success was still uncertain.
As Israel's longest-serving leader, Netanyahu, 71, has been fighting to hold onto office through four inconclusive elections since 2019.
Rivlin, in a televised address announcing his choice of Lapid, said the former finance minister had the pledged support of 56 of parliament's 120 members, still short of a majority.
"It ... became clear that Yair Lapid has the possibility to form a government that will win parliament's approval, but there are many difficulties," Rivlin said.
The most recent vote on March 23, held while Netanyahu is also on trial for alleged corruption, yielded no majority for the prime minister or for a loose alliance of rivals from across the political spectrum aiming to topple him.
A 28-day mandate to put together a coalition ran out at midnight after Netanyahu failed to agree on terms with potential right-wing partners, opening the way for Rivlin to assign the task to another member of parliament.
Lapid also has 28 days to try to form a coalition.
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