Opposition parties to Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, led by Yesh Atid’s Yair Lapid informed president Reuven Rivlin of the formation of an eight-party coalition just ahead of Wednesday’s midnight deadline, preventing what could have been the country’s fifth election in two years.

The “government of change”, which Lapid announced had the support of a majority of opposition parties in the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, still needs to pass a parliamentary vote of confidence expected to take place this week. Should it do so, Netanyahu’s twelve-year tenure of fifteen years total as Israel’s longest-serving prime minister would end, being replaced by head of right-wing party Yamina Naftali Bennett, a staunch advocate for the controversial Israeli settlement in the West Bank and opponent of an independent state of Palestine.