The Israeli Parliament passed a law on Thursday limiting the possibility of declaring a prime minister unfit for office, the opposition denouncing a text tailor-made for the current head of government Binyamin Netanyahu.
The deputies adopted by 61 votes against 47, an amendment to the fundamental law known as "
The government
" specifying the conditions under which a prime minister can be declared temporarily unfit to exercise his functions.
The Basic Laws serve as the Constitution in Israel, and until then, the one on government stipulated that the prime minister could be declared unfit, but without specifying the grounds that could lead to such a decision, nor detailing the procedure.
From now on, the head of the executive can only be declared unfit in the event of physical or mental incapacity, and in only two cases: whether he makes the request himself, or following a procedure initiated by a vote of the government with a majority of three quarters of the ministers.
Ongoing trial
The new law "
de facto limits the possibilities of declaring a prime minister unfit to exercise his functions
", explains to AFP Guy Lurie, researcher at the Israel Democratic Institute, a research center in Jerusalem: "
The reasons other than those specified in the amendment will no longer be admissible.
»
Mr. Lurie recalls that the question of the prime minister's incapacity arose when Ehud Olmert, head of government from 2006 to 2009, had "been
questioned by the police
" for a corruption case, before finally resigning.
It was then a question
of “knowing whether he could continue to exercise.
If the Supreme Court had at the time rejected a petition asking that he be declared unfit, it [had] implied that a conflict of interest could be considered [a reason for] unfit, ”
adds- he.
At the beginning of February, an anti-corruption NGO had sent a petition to the Court with a view to obtaining the dismissal of Binyamin Netanyahu.
The NGO asserted in its complaint that his function as Prime Minister places him in a situation of conflict of interest because of his ongoing trial for several corruption cases.
'Unfounded' impeachment rumor
Recently, the office of the Attorney General of Israel had denied a rumor according to which this magistrate would have considered forcing Binyamin Netanyahou to resign.
"
The coalition has now passed a personal, obscene and corrupt law against an unfounded impeachment rumor,
" opposition leader Yair Lapid said on Twitter, saying, "
once again, Netanyahu only cares about himself- even
”.
Parliament's vote comes as the Netanyahu government's justice reform project has deeply divided the country for several months.