Netanyahu: We don’t have 61 recommendations for me to be prime minister

Netanyahu warned that the gap between Blue and White and Likud is even larger among voters who say they are certain about their vote.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a meeting with West Bank community heads (photo credit: PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a meeting with West Bank community heads
(photo credit: PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE)
The polls show that the Right will not have a majority that will allow Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to form the next government, the Likud leader warned Sunday, two days before the polls open for Knesset elections.
“I was here in 1999 and I currently see a similar problem,” Netanyahu said in a meeting of mayors who support the Likud. “If we don’t change the trend, we will lose.”
Netanyahu said 61 Knesset seats’ worth of recommendations to President Reuven Rivlin are not guaranteed, because Zehut leader Moshe Feiglin refuses to commit to one side.
“President Rivlin said something simple. If there aren’t 61 recommendations, then the largest party wins and forms the government. We don’t have 61…If there is no [majority right-wing] bloc, then [Blue and White Leaders Yair] Lapid and [Benny] Gantz are the biggest party, according to the polls in the media and according to our polls,” the prime minister warned.
Netanyahu warned that the gap between Blue and White and Likud is even larger among voters who say they are certain about their vote.
According to Netanyahu, in 2015, “the media did not hide its happiness that the Left was going to win,” which motivated people to vote for the Right, but this time, “Lapid and Gantz are going to win, but the media learned its lesson and is trying to put our people to sleep and are saying the Likud will win.
“Since when does the media encourage the Likud? When they want us to lose,” he argued.
Netanyahu repeated his promise that he will form a government with the smaller right-wing parties, including Zehut, and that Gantz will try to form a left-wing coalition with Labor and Meretz and support from Arab parties.
The meeting between mayors and Netanyahu was called an “emergency,” and he strongly encouraged the mayors to try to “wake people up,” convince them to vote, make sure the Likud is the biggest party and “save the right-wing government.”
Netanyahu held a subsequent meeting with West Bank mayors and local council heads, and made similar remarks.