Israel's Bennett: right-winger, likely kingmaker
Israel's Naftali Bennett, a multi-millionaire former high-tech entrepreneur who made a name in politics with hardline religious-nationalist rhetoric, emerged as a likely kingmaker following Tuesday's election, exit polls showed.
He leads the Yamina party, which has backed Israel's proposed annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank, and he has made pitches to hard-right voters throughout his career.
Ahead of the latest election -- the fourth in two years -- the former defence minister highlighted his management experience, burnishing his credentials as the man to heal Israel's pandemic-battered economy.
Bennett had been part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition that collapsed in 2018.
But he was not asked to join the Netanyahu-led unity government formed in May last year, a move seen as an expression of the premier's personal contempt towards him, despite their shared ideology.
Exit polls predicted Bennett's party winning between seven and eight seats, which could be welded to a coalition led by Netanyahu or used to complete the majority of a bloc of parties opposed to the continued tenure of the longtime premier.
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210323-israel-s-bennett-right-winger-likely-kingmaker