2022 Meretz leadership election

Last updated

2022 Meretz leadership election
Meretz Logo.svg
  2019 23 August 2022
Turnout80.84%
  tmvnh zhbh glAvn (cropped).jpg Yair Golan 2020 (1).jpg
Candidate Zehava Gal-On Yair Golan
Party Meretz Meretz
Popular vote9,4435,710
Percentage61.6%37.25%

Meretz leader before election

Nitzan Horowitz

Meretz leader

Zehava Gal-On

The 2022 Meretz leadership election was held on 23 August 2022 [1] in the leadup to the 2022 Israeli legislative election. On 12 July, incumbent Nitzan Horowitz announced that he would not seek re-election as leader. Former party leader Zehava Gal-On defeated former deputy Chief of the General Staff Yair Golan. [2]

Contents

Background

In June 2019, incumbent leader of Meretz Tamar Zandberg was defeated by Nitzan Horowitz in a vote held by the party's conference ahead of a legislative election in September. [3] [4] Following his election, Horowitz formed an alliance with the Israel Democratic Party and the Green Party, named the Democratic Union. [5] The alliance won five seats in the election. [6] In the 2020 election, Meretz ran in a joint list with the Israeli Labor Party and Gesher, which won seven seats. [7] In December 2020, Yair Golan, who previously led the Israel Democratic Party, announced that he would join Meretz. [8] Meretz ran alone in the 2021 election, where it won six seats, [9] and subsequently participated the thirty-sixth government, the first time Meretz sat in a government since 2001. [10] [11]

Criticism of incumbent party leader Nitzan Horowitz's leadership included a failure to keep the party's Knesset members in line, which was blamed for playing a factor in the breakdown of the governing coalition. [12] After an early Knesset election was called, polls showed Meretz polling near (and often below) the electoral threshold. [13] Despite the interest of leadership within Meretz to run on a joint list with the Israeli Labor Party in the coming election, that party's leader, Merav Michaeli, had dismissed the possibility of this. [12]

On 12 July 2022, Horowitz announced he would not seek re-election as party leader, but would remain in politics. [14] On 18 July, following speculation regarding a potential candidacy, former leader of Meretz Zehava Gal-On stated that she would "Announce when there is something to announce", neither confirming nor denying reports that she was considering a run. [15] [16] The next day, Gal-On announced she would run for the leadership of Meretz. [17]

Candidates

Ran

Withdrew

The following individual withdrew from the election:

Did not run

The following individual was speculated as a potential candidate, but did not run:

Campaign

On 6 July 2022, Yair Galon announced his candidacy for Meretz leadership, setting up a contested leadership vote. [12] On 12 July 2022, incumbent leader Horowitz withdrew from seeking reelection as party leader. [13] While former party leader Zehava Gal-On had originally dismissed the possibility of a run at the time that Yair Galon entered the race, [12] calls for her to run continued. [12] On 19 July, Gal-On announced her candidacy. [1]

Against Gal-On, who had already served as party leader, Golan cast himself as leading the party towards the future rather than the past. [1]

Results

2022 Meretz leadership election [19] [20]
PartyCandidateVotes%
Meretz Zehava Gal-On 9,443 61.6%
Meretz Yair Golan 5,71037.25%
Abstaining1761.15%
Turnout 15,32980.84%

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nitzan Horowitz</span> Israeli politician (born 1965)

Nitzan Horowitz is a politician and former journalist who served as Israel's Minister of Health from 2021 to 2022. He is the former leader of Meretz. He previously was the chief U.S. correspondent and commentator for the Israeli News Company, known as Channel 2 News.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mossi Raz</span> Israeli politician

Moshe "Mossi" Raz is an Israeli politician. He was a member of the Knesset for Meretz in three spells between 2000 and 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yair Golan</span> Israeli major general (born 1962)

Yair Golan is an Israeli politician and senior military officer. He served as the Deputy Minister of Economy in the Thirty-sixth Israeli government, and served as a Member of the Knesset representing Meretz from 2019–2022. He is a reserve major general (Aluf) in the Israel Defense Forces. During his military service he served, among other roles, as the IDF Deputy Chief of Staff, Commander of the Home Front Command and Commander of the Northern Command.

Early elections for the nineteenth Knesset were held in Israel on 22 January 2013. Public debate over the Tal Law had nearly led to early elections in 2012, but they were aborted at the last moment after Kadima briefly joined the government. The elections were later called in early October 2012 after failure to agree on the budget for the 2013 fiscal year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tamar Zandberg</span> Israeli politician

Tamar Zandberg is an Israeli politician who served as Minister of Environmental Protection from 2021 to 2022. Zandberg also served as a member of the Knesset for Meretz from 2013 to 2021, and as the party's leader between 2018 and 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zehava Galon</span> Israeli politician

Zehava Galon, is an Israeli politician, the president of the research institute ZULAT for Equality and Human Rights and former leader of Meretz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meretz</span> Israeli political party

Meretz is a left-wing political party in Israel. The party was formed in 1992 by the merger of Ratz, Mapam and Shinui, and was at its peak between 1992 and 1996 when it had 12 seats. It currently has no seats in the Knesset, following its failure to pass the electoral threshold in the 2022 elections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yariv Oppenheimer</span> Israeli human rights activist

Yariv Oppenheimer is an Israeli human rights activist and politician. He was the director of Peace Now for a year and a half until his resignation in April 2016, reportedly due to internal struggles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Noam (political party)</span> Political party in Israel

Noam is a far-right Orthodox Jewish, Religious Zionist political party in Israel, officially established in July 2019 by a very conservative faction in the Religious Zionist community inspired by Rabbi Zvi Thau and his Har Hamor Yeshiva. The party's main goal is to advance policies against LGBT rights, and against what its backers call "the destruction of the family". Avi Maoz, the party's leader, was elected to the Knesset in 2021, and is the party's sole representative.

The Democratic Union was a liberal-left-wing political alliance in Israel formed between Meretz, Israel Democratic Party, Labor defector Stav Shaffir, and the Green Movement that ran in the September 2019 Israeli legislative election. On 19 December 2019, Labor defector Stav Shaffir and her party, the Green Movement, announced a press conference in which she would leave the alliance to run independently in the 2020 Israeli legislative election. The Democratic Union initially announced on 7 January 2020 that it will run in the 2020 election, this time including Meretz and Democratic Choice.

Legislative elections were held in Israel on 1 November 2022 to elect the 120 members of the 25th Knesset. The results saw the right-wing national camp of former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu win a parliamentary majority, amid losses for left-wing and Arab parties, as well as gains by the far-right.

In the run up to the 2022 Israeli legislative election, various organisations carried out opinion polling to gauge voting intention in Israel during the term of the 24th Knesset. This article lists the results of such polls.

Labor-Gesher-Meretz or Emet, known as Labor-Meretz from March to April 2020, was an Israeli centre-left electoral list composed of three parties – the Israeli Labor Party, Gesher and Meretz. The list ran in the 2020 legislative election, led by Amir Peretz, chairman of the Labor Party. The list received seven seats in the election, of which three were for Labor, one was for Gesher and three were for Meretz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2019 Meretz leadership election</span>

An election was held for the leadership of the Meretz party on 27 June 2019 at the party's conference. Nitzan Horowitz unseated incumbent leader Tamar Zandberg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2018 Meretz leadership election</span>

An election was held for the leadership of the Meretz party on March 22, 2018. It saw the election of Tamar Zandberg.

Elections are held in Tel Aviv to elect the city's mayor. Currently, such elections are regularly scheduled to elect mayors to five-year terms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2007 Likud leadership election</span>

A leadership election was held by the Likud party on 15 August 2007. Incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu defeated challengers Moshe Feiglin and Danny Danon by a large majority.

In the run up to the next Israeli legislative election, various organisations carried out opinion polling to gauge voting intention in Israel during the term of the twenty-fifth Knesset. This article lists the results of such polls.

The 2022 Israeli legislative election was held using closed list proportional representation. Each party presented a list of candidates to the Central Elections Committee prior to the election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2024 Israeli municipal elections</span> Municipal elections are set to be held in Israel on 30 January 2024

Municipal elections in Israel are scheduled for 30 January 2024. In accordance with changes made in 2018, election day will be a paid day off work. All municipalities, local councils and regional councils will be up for election, as will their leaders. Top-two runoffs will be held on 13 February in all localities where no leadership candidate won 40% or more of the vote in the first round.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Breuer, Eliav (19 July 2022). "Zehava Galon announces candidacy for Meretz primaries". JPost.com. The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
  2. Keller-Lynn, Carrie (23 August 2022). "Galon wins Meretz leadership race, returning to head left-wing party after 3 years". The Times of Israel . Retrieved 23 August 2022.
  3. Zaken, Danny; Schneider, Tal (27 June 2019). "הורוביץ ניצח את זנדברג בבחירות לראשות מרצ" [Horowitz defeated Zandberg in Meretz leadership election]. Globes (in Hebrew). Retrieved 23 July 2021.
  4. "Nitzan Horowitz wins vote to lead left-wing Meretz party". The Times of Israel . 27 June 2019. Retrieved 23 August 2022.
  5. Gil Hoffman; Jeremy Sharon (25 July 2019). "Polls show Democratic Union Party to net 8–12 seats". The Jerusalem Post . Retrieved 27 July 2019.
  6. Wootliff, Raoul (25 September 2019). "Elections Committee publishes final results, hands them to president". The Times of Israel . Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  7. "תוצאות הבחירות לכנסת העשרים ושלוש" [Result of elections to the twenty-third Knesset]. CEC. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  8. Cohen, Shirit Avitan (7 December 2020). "ח"כ יאיר גולן הודיע כי הוא מצטרף למפלגת מרצ" [Member of the Knesset Yair Golan announced that he will join Meretz]. Globes. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  9. "תוצאות הבחירות לכנסת העשרים וארבע" [Result of elections for the twenty-fourth Knesset]. CEC. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  10. Azulai, Moran (11 June 2021). "מרצ אישרה את הכניסה לממשלה: "ננסה להביא משהו אחר, בלי כל הרעל"" [Meretz approves entry into government: "We'll try and bring something else, without all the poison"]. Ynet (in Hebrew). Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  11. Drukman, Yaron (13 June 2021). "ממשלת בנט-לפיד יוצאת לדרך: הכירו את כל השרים" [Bennett-Lapid government launches: meet all of the Ministers]. Ynet (in Hebrew). Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Keller-Lynn, Carrie (6 July 2022). "Meretz leadership in play as Golan enters race against Horowitz". www.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  13. 1 2 3 4 Baruch, Hezki (12 July 2022). "Meretz chief quits party leadership race". Israel National News. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
  14. "ניצן הורוביץ הודיע: לא אתמודד על ראשות מרצ" [Nitzan Horowitz Announced: I will not run for leadership of Meretz]. N12. 12 July 2022. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  15. "זהבה גלאון צפויה להודיע שתתמודד על ראשות מרצ" [Zehava Gal-On is expected to announce a run for Meretz leadership]. N12. 18 July 2022. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  16. "תציל את מרצ? זהבה גלאון הודיעה כי תתמודד על ראשות המפלגה" [She will save Meretz? Zehava Gal-On announced she will run for leadership of the party]. www.maariv.co.il. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  17. 1 2 ""לו איבחר לראשות מרצ אדבר עם מרב על איחוד העבודה-מרצ":..." ["If elected to the Leadership of Meretz, i will speak with Merav about a union between Labor and Meretz"...]. N12. 19 July 2022. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  18. Kotev, Adam (6 July 2022). "יאיר גולן יתמודד על ראשות מרצ: "לבנות שמאל ציוני חזק וגאה"" [Yair Golan will run for Leadership of Meretz: "To Build a strong and proud zionist left"]. Ynet (in Hebrew). Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  19. Shalev, Tal (23 August 2022). "זהבה גלאון נבחרה לראשות מרצ, היו"ר היוצא הורוביץ מחוץ לכנסת" [Zehava Gal-On elected leader of Meretz, Outgoing Chairman Horowitz outside the Knesset.]. Walla (in Hebrew). Retrieved 23 August 2022.
  20. "תוצאות מאושרות לאחר הקפצות" [Confirmed results after reshuffle](PDF). Meretz . Retrieved 24 August 2022.