Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Thursday evening at an election conference in Dimona and promised that the Religious Zionism Party would be in the next government.
''We need to establish a national government. I am going to form a national government - Likud, Religious Zionism, Shas and United Torah Judaism. Gantz is a leftist, he wants a Palestinian capital in Jerusalem, I will not form a government with him. I will not give up on Religious Zionism in order to get some article in Haaretz. We will form only a right-wing government," Netanyahu vowed.
The promise by Netanyahu was made following allegations made by the chairman of the Religious Zionism Party, MK Bezalel Smotrich, who said the media will put heavy pressure on Benny Gantz after the elections to join a government with the Likud and Netanyahu, with the goal of preventing the appointments of Itamar Ben Gvir and Smotrich as ministers in the government.
Meanwhile, a poll conducted by the Midgam Institute for a conference held by Channel 12 News and Keshet TV revealed that if elections were held today, the right-wing bloc would win 60 seats and the current coalition would win 56 seats.
According to the data, the Likud wins 31 seats in the next Knesset, Yesh Atid 24, the Religious Zionism Party 14 and the National Unity Party only 11.
Shas wins 8 seats, United Torah Judaism 7, Yisrael Beytenu 6, the Labor Party 6, Meretz 5, Hadash-Ta'al 4 and Ra'am wins 4 as well.
Below the electoral threshold, there are only two parties that managed to win at least a percentage of the votes: The Jewish Home led by Ayelet Shaked with 1.9% of the votes and Balad with 1.3% of the votes. The rest of the slates receive no more than half a percent of the votes.
The survey attempted to estimate voter turnout in the upcoming elections and asked participants if they intended to vote. 66% answered that they intend to vote. By sector: 69% of the Jewish sector responded that they intend to vote, compared to 44% of the Arab sector.