On Monday, the Knesset ends its Passover recess and opens the summer session: The political arena is heating up ahead of the presidential elections, amid the closure of the police investigation file opened against Minister Silvan Shalom and amid talk of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's initiative to abolish the institution of the presidency.
Netanyahu, who left for Japan tonight, is trying to turn the tables and prefers to promote a law that would abolish the presidency. So far, the prime minister has not announced which candidate among the contenders he will support. Initially, there was talk that he would support Minister Silvan Shalom, but after the investigations into various scandals that cast a shadow over the possibility that he would run, and even though the case against him has been closed, it seems unlikely that Netanyahu will now recommend his candidacy. Another candidate from the Likud ranks, Reuven Rivlin, is not exactly on good terms with Netanyahu, nor with his wife Sara.
Speculations about the reason why Netanyahu wants to abolish the presidency range from his inability to find a candidate close to his heart to the fear that after the next elections, the elected president of the state will be the one to decide who will head the government. For, according to all estimates, the results of the next elections will bring a host of medium-sized parties to the Knesset. In such a situation, the candidate who will run for prime minister will depend on recommendations to the president - who will decide who has the best chances of forming a government. Since neither Silvan Shalom nor Ruben Rivlin are considered to be Netanyahu's great admirers, and certainly not Labor candidate Fuad Ben-Eliezer, as well as Dalia Itzik - Netanyahu prefers thatThe institution of the presidency will be abolished. And who will decide who will be tasked with forming the coalition? A regulation will likely be amended to stipulate that the candidate of the party with the most seats will head the coalition.
But now it appears, according to a Channel 10 report, that the ones who will be putting a damper on the attempts to abolish the presidency are the coalition partners - Yesh Atid and Jewish Home, who have not yet announced their preferred candidate. Speculation is that Yesh Atid will support Shalom, and Jewish Home will support Rivlin, perhaps precisely because Netanyahu does not support him.
It is likely that in the coming days we will see the various candidates in the Knesset corridors, on their way to winning the hearts of every MK and the support of every party.
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