(JERUSALEM) –– The office of Israel’s president says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been given the difficult task of forming a new government.
Wednesday’s decision came after President Reuven Rivlin’s attempts to broker a unity government between Netanyahu and his chief rival, Benny Gantz, failed.
Rivlin and Netanyahu were to give statements later Wednesday.
Netanyahu faces an uphill struggle. After a tight election, his Likud party, along with smaller allied parties, controls 55 seats, short of the required 61-seat majority in parliament.
His former ally, the Yisrael Beitenu party, refuses to sit in a government with Netanyahu’s ultra-religious partners. And dovish opposition parties are unlikely to back Netanyahu.
He now has up to six weeks to form a coalition. If he fails, Gantz will likely be given a chance.
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