Although his political allies hope it will take much quicker, Sharon has 45 days from the time the official elections results are announced to form a government and have it approved by the Knesset. Until that time, Barak will remain as caretaker prime minister. If Sharon fails to form a Knesset- approved government within 45 days, another election is called - and Sharon will not be permitted to run again. He has another reason for hurrying: If the national budget for the year 2001 is not approved by the Knesset by March 31 - three months after the original deadline - new elections must be held three months later for both Prime Minister and the entire Knesset. The next regularly scheduled elections are November 2003, at the end of the current Knesset term.
If he cannot form a unity government, he will have to form a narrow right-wing coalition. The 58 “naturally right-wing” seats - three short of a Knesset majority - would have to be supplemented with “outsiders” such as David and Maxime Levy, Dan Meridor, Roni Milo, and Chaim Katz, and their respective demands.
Likud MK Silvan Shalom, one of the managers of the successful campaign, was one of two Likud MKs mentioned by Sharon last night - the other was Ruby Rivlin - leading many to conclude that they would receive senior posts in the new government. Shalom summarized the election campaign and victory today for Arutz-7: \"So many people wanted to put an end to what we have gone through in the past years. It was beautiful to see ten political parties working together, and then to get such a great achievement - a 25% gap - I don’t think such a thing will ever happen again.\"
Arutz-7\'s Ariel Kahane asked, “Does this great margin of victory mean that the Likud can stick to its basic ideological positions, without a need to lean leftwards?” Shalom answered,
\"We would like to do this, but we may not be able to do this because we don\'t have a parliamentary majority.\"
Kahane: \"Then why not go for a right-wing coalition, and then you can stand fast on your familiar and original positions?\".
Shalom: \"Even then things are not exactly the way they appear. A narrow government will be based on the Levy brothers and Meridor and Milo, as well as Yisrael B\'Aliyah and Shas - whose positions are not exactly like ours... It\'s not as if we have so many options. This is why we have to begin by trying for as broad a government as possible, but if this doesn\'t work [i.e., if a unity government with Labor cannot be formed] then we will form a narrow government and leave an opening for Labor to join later. At present, there is no one with whom to talk in Labor, and since we don’t have time to waste - and since we have to change the outgoing government\'s policies as fast as possible - we have to form a government as fast as possible.\"
If he cannot form a unity government, he will have to form a narrow right-wing coalition. The 58 “naturally right-wing” seats - three short of a Knesset majority - would have to be supplemented with “outsiders” such as David and Maxime Levy, Dan Meridor, Roni Milo, and Chaim Katz, and their respective demands.
Likud MK Silvan Shalom, one of the managers of the successful campaign, was one of two Likud MKs mentioned by Sharon last night - the other was Ruby Rivlin - leading many to conclude that they would receive senior posts in the new government. Shalom summarized the election campaign and victory today for Arutz-7: \"So many people wanted to put an end to what we have gone through in the past years. It was beautiful to see ten political parties working together, and then to get such a great achievement - a 25% gap - I don’t think such a thing will ever happen again.\"
Arutz-7\'s Ariel Kahane asked, “Does this great margin of victory mean that the Likud can stick to its basic ideological positions, without a need to lean leftwards?” Shalom answered,
\"We would like to do this, but we may not be able to do this because we don\'t have a parliamentary majority.\"
Kahane: \"Then why not go for a right-wing coalition, and then you can stand fast on your familiar and original positions?\".
Shalom: \"Even then things are not exactly the way they appear. A narrow government will be based on the Levy brothers and Meridor and Milo, as well as Yisrael B\'Aliyah and Shas - whose positions are not exactly like ours... It\'s not as if we have so many options. This is why we have to begin by trying for as broad a government as possible, but if this doesn\'t work [i.e., if a unity government with Labor cannot be formed] then we will form a narrow government and leave an opening for Labor to join later. At present, there is no one with whom to talk in Labor, and since we don’t have time to waste - and since we have to change the outgoing government\'s policies as fast as possible - we have to form a government as fast as possible.\"