In a contested election, Benjamin Netanyahu nearly formed a government in Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not win the parliamentary elections as he expected, but most polls predict that his party and his right-wing allies they will reach the necessary majority in parliament to form a government and secure their fifth consecutive term.

Without official results published and with the control still open, Netanyahu and his main rival of this election, Benny Gantz (former commander of the Israeli army) they rushed to celebrate and announce the victory.

"The right led by the Likud has achieved a clear victory, I thank the citizens of Israel for trusting me, and I am going to start forming a right-wing government with our natural partners tonight," he wrote. the Prime Minister on his Twitter account, while his electoral bunker ruled with caution.

Gantz, on the other hand, appeared in front of his supporters in his electoral headquarters, where a much more festive spirit reigns, and shouted: "We won, the Israeli people spoke!", According to local media. Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post.

Shortly afterwards, in his closing speech on Election Day and in front of smiling and optimistic supporters, he repeated: "In elections, there are winners and losers, and we are the winners".

In addition, the army said that "in the coming days" will do "the necessary to form a government", which This will involve trying to attract some of the ultranationalist and religious forces which is the so-called right-wing bloc led by Netanyahu.

As often happens in these cases, Netanyahu and Gantz they chose the exit survey that suited them best to celebrate.

Of the three polls conducted by local television, two of them give the Prime Minister and his ultranationalist and orthodox allies the absolute majority of the Knesset (parliament) between 64 and 67 seats, above the 61 deputies they need to form a government.

According to these two journalists, Netanyahu would have been tied with Gantz or would have lost the first minority by a single bank.

Gantz, for its part, relied on the third election which gave him a net advantage of 37 seats against Netanyahu's 33, leaving the prime minister to deputation to obtain the parliamentary majority needed to maintain power.

What is certain is that the differences between the mouths of the urn and the simultaneous celebrations of Netanyahu and Gantz, created a climate of uncertainty that will dissipate only in the next few days, when the official results define these tight elections.

Since the Prime Minister decided to advance the general elections at the end of last year, in order to form an allied base in the Knesset at large, these elections they became a kind of referendum on their continuity or not in powerwhich has been uninterrupted for ten years.