After several delays, the budget will be brought for debate and a vote in the Knesset plenum, with the final vote expected to take place late in the evening today (Sunday)
Lawmakers will vote just 48 hours before the legal deadline. Failure to approve the budget by that time would lead to the automatic dissolution of the Knesset and a swift move toward elections.
The budget debates were originally scheduled to begin last Thursday and continue into the early hours of the night, ahead of a vote planned for Friday afternoon. However, due to a tight schedule, the proceedings were postponed to Sunday.
One reason for the delay is the assessment that the coalition will likely manage to avoid the traditional “filibuster," in which the opposition attempts to exhaust and block the budget’s passage through lengthy speeches.
In an unusual move, the plenum session opened as early as 9:00 a.m. The opposition’s filibuster is expected to take place during the day instead of overnight, lasting around 12 hours until 9:00 p.m. At that point, nearly all 120 members of Knesset are expected to convene for the voting process, which the Finance Ministry estimates-based on past experience-will take about four hours.
If there are no last-minute surprises and the coalition maintains its majority, the budget is expected to be approved shortly after midnight.