BERLIN – Though comments by European political leaders on the Knesset election
were few and far between on Wednesday, the media reported extensively on the
results.
The highest-circulation daily outside Japan – Germany’s Bild –
wrote “The winner is actually the loser” under a picture of Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu, Yair Lapid of Yesh Atid and Labor’s Shelly
Yacimovich.
The paper asked in its headline, “Will he do it with him or
her?” in connection with a coalition government with either Lapid or
Yacimovich.
The Greek media was packed full of articles. The Kathimerini
broadsheet headlined its report “Victory of Netanyahu at the elections in
Israel,” with the subtitle reading “The party of Netanyahu won the elections,
surprise second place to the centrist party Yesh Atid.” Ta Nea wrote, “Israel:
The seats were divided in two between the Right and the Left in
Knesset.”
The leftist paper Eleftherotypia wrote, “Israel: The surprise
came from the centrist- left.”
In an analysis for The Jerusalem Post,
Elena Zaharieva, a close observer of Bulgarian- Israeli relations, wrote that
the “10 leading Bulgarian media sources show a consistency in the reaction of
the Bulgarian media to the elections in Israel. The focus is on the weaker
support for the Likud-Yisrael Beytenu coalition in comparison to the predicted
figures, and the loss of 11 seats by the coalition.”
She continued,
“National BNT channel reported: ‘Netanyahu won the elections in Israel, but the
results show a significant drop in support for the prime minister.’ “The
National Bulgarian radio station Horizont reported that Netanyahu may lose the
prime-minister’s position and cited The New York Times view that the election
result was a humiliating rebuke for the prime minister. The Bulgarian news
outlet Dnevnik wrote, ‘Netanyahu forms new government with equal power of Left
and Right,’ and the 24 Chasa newspaper declared: ‘Netanyahu claims victory but
did not win the expected number of seats,’” Zaharieva wrote.
Spain’s
leftist El País wrote, “Netanyahu wins but he loses ground to the Center and the
Left,” and quoted Netanyahu, “Our priority will be avoiding a nuclear Iran.” Ana
Carbajosa, from El País, wrote, “Bibi: a weakened king,” and said that “The PM
is not especially charismatic, but he tunes in with the average Israeli
citizen.”
France 24 TV headlined an article on its website,
“Tough-talking secularist Lapid shakes up Israeli poll.”
In a
pre-election article, the state-run French news organization had predicted,
“Prosettlement extremists to gain from Israel’s right shift.”
In Le
Monde, a headline for the blog of Gilles Paris noted, “Binyamin Netanyahu, less
triumphant than expected.”
Le Figaro wrote, “Netanyahu, winner of a
colorless victory.”
Most of the pre-election European media narrative
anticipated a move to the Right in the Knesset.
Writing from Jerusalem,
the Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat’s correspondent wrote that Netanyahu said he
“is going to construct the widest government possible,” which the prime minister
vowed to do during his speech Tuesday night. The article’s headline: “Israel’s
Netanyahu won the elections: The Iranian nuclear program, the biggest
challenge.”
Italy’s papers devoted substantial coverage to the
elections. Corriere della Sera ran the headline, “Surprise in Israel.
Rocking back the Right.”
La Stampa wrote, “The risk of an unstable
majority,” and that “the elections for the Knesset thaw Israeli politics, and
make possible different majorities.”
The paper went on to say that the
result generated new leadership and added “uncertainty... in Jerusalem,
in a Middle East already in profound transformation.”
La Repubblica
headlined its report, “Surprise at the polls, Netanyahu loses the vote but
announces: I won.”