Tourism Minister Yariv Levin (Likud) welcomed the results of the elections, as reflected in the exit polls, and noted that victory for the right was achieved only thanks to the creation of a right-wing coalition by the Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
“If we look at these exit polls, in two out of three we clearly have a right-wing government, headed by Binyamin Netanyahu, because the right-wing bloc, which is made up entirely of parties that have promised to recommend Netanyahu to the president to receive the mandate to form the government, has more than 60 MKs,” he told Arutz Sheva.
“Even the exit poll that, at the moment, shows a tie of 60-60, it is important to note that in this exit poll, the Balad party receives six seats and that the total seats of all the Arab parties is similar to what it was last time because the voter turnout was much lower this time, so it is likely that this result will change,” continued Levin.
“One can say that if these exit polls are accurate, we have a strong, right-wing government, headed by Binyamin Netanyahu.”
Asked whether he thought that the Likud campaign hurt some of the smaller right-wing parties, Levin replied, “The exact opposite is true. I think that this only proves one thing: These splits are irresponsible. Having so many parties is redundant, it’s dangerous. I don’t think there is one person today who understands why the New Right split from the Jewish Home. I think that the move that was made to unite the right-wing parties saved these elections because, if that hadn’t happened, there might have been a whole slew of parties that would have crashed. I say again: We have to wait for the final results. Things can still change.”