Netanyahu's Likud suffers 'historic collapse' in pre-election poll

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party has dropped to 19 seats in a new opinion poll, marking its weakest showing since May 2025 just six weeks ahead of the Oct. 27 general election, according to the survey published Friday. The Maariv newspaper, which commissioned the research, described the result as a "historic collapse" for the ruling party.

The survey was conducted by Lazar Research between Sept. 9-10 among 4,329 respondents and carried a margin of error of 4 percentage points, the daily reported. Likud's projected seat count fell from 21 in a poll conducted on Monday, continuing a downward trend for the governing faction.

Opposition maintains lead

By contrast, former army chief Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar party remained the largest party with 25 seats, unchanged from the previous survey, positioning it to lead efforts to unseat the incumbent premier. At the bloc level, opposition parties would win 58 seats while the current governing coalition would secure 50, with Arab parties receiving the remaining 12 seats in the 120-member Knesset.

A minimum of 61 seats is required to form a government in Israel's parliament. The results emerged three days after Israeli parties submitted their final candidate lists for the upcoming national vote.