Israel: PM Benjamin Netanyahu calls for early general election
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for an early general election in Israel in four months’ time.
The vote is expected to take place in September, a year before he is required by law to seek a new mandate.
Benjamin Netanyahu leads a centre-right coalition which includes his own Likud, and the Labour party of Ehud Barak.
He has been prime minister since 2009. Opinion polls suggest that he is by some distance the most popular politician in Israel.
Benjamin Netanyahu told a meeting of party workers in Tel Aviv that he didn’t want “a year and a half of political instability accompanied by blackmail and populism”.
After listing the accomplishments of his government, Benjamin Netanyahu said he would like to lead a broadly based coalition after the election.