The right-wing Yamina part is not expected to suffer a massive political blow following the departure of its founder, outgoing Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, a Channel 12 News poll has found.
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Wednesday evening saw Bennett announce that he would be stepping down as head of Yamina ahead of the Nov. 1 elections and taking a break from politics altogether.
Bennett's No. 2 in the party Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked will serve as Yamina leader, but the party faces an uncertain future, as three of its current six MKs have already departed its ranks.
The poll found that were elections held at this time, Likud would win 34 seats, followed by Yesh Atid (20), Blue and White (9), Religious Zionist Party (9), Sephardi ultra-Orthodox party Shas (8), Ashkenazi Haredi party United Torah Judaism (7), the Joint Arab List (6), Labor (5), Yisrael Beytenu (5), Yamina (5), the Islamist Ra'am party (4), Meretz (4), and New Hope (4).
This scenario gives the right-wing bloc 58 Knesset seats, and the Center-Left bloc 56. The Joint Arab List, which is not expected to join any coalition, is excluded from the tally.
However, unlike Bennett, Shaked is unlikely to refuse an offer to join a Netanyahu-led coalition. This would give the right-wing bloc 63 seats and allow the former prime minister – ousted by Bennett and Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid last year after 12 years in office – to form a government.
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