Government is falling? Ministry of Finance officials have postponed budget discussions

Ministry of Finance officials have already estimated that their work on the 2023 budget will probably be in vain, and this evening on Wednesday Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman confirmed the assessment and announced that budget discussions are frozen at this stage. This is after the coalition suffered another discrimination in the Knesset with the minimum wage law of the opposition, which passed a preliminary reading contrary to the government's position. Lieberman said after his decision: "This is not the right time to bring in a budget, until everything calms down and stabilizes."
A senior source in the Ministry of Finance said that "there was no choice at the moment but to postpone the discussions. The budget will not be brought to the government on the date recently agreed, June 23, but later this summer it will surely be brought and approved by the government." A source in the Ministry of Finance said that "we have time. Nothing is burning. The budget can be approved by the end of March next year. We will wait for the government to stabilize and pass the budget." The Treasury also said that in order to gain support for the budget, a number of changes may have been made to the Arrangements Law, which will usually lead to a "good budget and an excellent Arrangements Law" in the Knesset.
Although discussions on the state budget for 2023 have taken place in the Ministry of Finance in recent weeks more quickly than in the past, there has been an atmosphere of "end of season" in recent days. We are working for free and this budget will not go through the political situation created in the Knesset. "
Senior Finance Ministry officials, including Minister Lieberman, have in recent weeks demanded from the head of the budget department, Yogev Gardos, director of the Tax Authority, Eran Yaakov, and other department heads, who deal with the chapters of the arrangements attached to the new budget.
An end known in advance
However, Finance Ministry officials feared that their work would be empty again, as happened to them only a year and a half ago, so they prepared a state budget for 2021-2020, but when they prepared the state budget items and the Arrangements Law it was already clear to them that the prime minister had no intention. At the time, Benjamin Netanyahu and former Finance Minister Israel Katz submitted the budget for Knesset approval.
A few months later, his approval would have led to the appointment of Defense Minister Bnei Gantz as prime minister in place of Netanyahu. The end was known in advance: the budget was not submitted to the Knesset for approval, and according to law, elections were announced, following which the Bennett-Lapid government was formed.
Now that the coalition no longer has a majority in the Knesset (the current situation is 60-60), and it is unable to even pass laws identified with the right and the Likud, such as the law extending the Yesha regulations, or its reappointment of Deputy Minister of Religions Matan Kahana, there is no chance The approval would have led to the appointment of Defense Minister Bnei Gantz as prime minister in Netanyahu's place a few months later. torch.
Now, when the coalition no longer has a majority in the Knesset (the current situation is 60-60), and it does not even succeed in passing a notorious approval of the state budget in the Knesset, it automatically leads to the dissolution of the Knesset and the announcement of elections. At the same time, according to the existing law for years, it will be permissible to approve the state budget for 2023 by a simple majority (61 votes are not required) in the Knesset plenum beyond December 31, 2022, until March 31, 2023. And the Likud, like the Yesha Regulations Extension Law, or the reappointment of Deputy Minister of Religions by Deputy Minister Matan Kahana, has no real chance of passing the state budget and approving it in the Knesset within three months. For the first time to the prime minister and ministers in May and June, and was brought for final government approval in July or August, the budget was then submitted to the Knesset after the holidays, in early November, and approved by December 31st.
MK Nir Orbach (right) has been in talks with the Likud in recent days, with the aim of ending the current government's term. A hint of this was given by Shas chairman Aryeh Deri, who tweeted at noon about "surprises that are approaching" after the approval of the increase in the minimum wage - and the Likud was furious about this.
Likud activists who spoke with Auerbach recently got the impression that he had lost patience with the government, even though he had been with Bennett and Shaked for many years and had even been appointed party director general in the past. However, it now appears he intends to dissolve the partnership with the prime minister and interior minister. Orbach declined to comment.