Bill proposal to cancel the option to form 'rotation governments' is set to pass its first reading

A bill proposal to cancel the option to form “rotation governments” was set to pass its first reading in the Knesset plenum on Monday with support from both sides of the aisle, marking a rare agreement on a constitutional amendment between coalition and opposition. The actual vote on the bill took place after press time.

The legislation in question is part of the Basic Law: The Government, and was the legal basis for both the Netanyahu-Gantz COVID-19 emergency government in 2020 and the Lapid-Bennett government of 2021-2022. Its purpose was to create a “two-headed” government, with a prime minister and “alternate prime minister” who switched midway through their tenure. 

Each prime minister has exactly half the votes in the cabinet and government committees, giving each veto power on all government decisions.

The legislation was fast-tracked through the Knesset in 2020 as part of negotiations between Gantz and Netanyahu. Politicians and civil organizations at the time, and since then, criticized the fact that the legislation was a constitutional amendment with significant ramifications that was passed hastily and for immediate political purposes.

The opposition during the Lapid-Bennett government took special issue with the rotational government option, as they argued that it is what enabled Bennett to serve as prime minister after winning just seven seats out of 120 (and entering the government with only six seats).

The bill to cancel the amendment, which technically is a series of similar bills that were merged into one, marks a rare agreement between coalition and opposition on a constitutional issue, especially following the government’s controversial judicial reforms of 2023. 

One of the reform’s chief proponents, Knesset Constitution Committee chairman MK Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionist Party), was one of the sponsors of Monday’s bill to cancel the rotational government arrangement, alongside stark opponents of the judicial reforms, such as Democrats MK Efrat Rayten.

Distorting incentives of elected officials

According to the explanatory section of the bill that Rayten proposed alongside Yesh Atid MK Karin Elharrar, the rotational government “distorts political considerations and the incentives of elected officials, blurs intragovernmental hierarchy, damages the status of the Prime Minister, and also enables the possibility of leveraging the relative power of politicians who did not win the majority of the public’s votes. These ultimately lead to damage to the government’s work, and to the public,” Rayten and Elharrar wrote.

The plenum convened on Monday despite the Knesset officially being in recess, at the request of both the government and the opposition. During the recess, the plenum may convene for certain purposes after following a special procedure and approval by the Knesset speaker.