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On July 19th 2019, Netanyahu’s total days in office as Israel’s prime minister equals Ben-Gurion’s. On July 20th he will hold the title of the Israeli prime minister with the longest term in office.
On July 20th 2019, Benjamin Netanyahu will break the record in total days in office among all of Israeli prime ministers, outstripping David Ben-Gurion who served for 4,875 days (about 13 1/2 years). The figure below shows the days in office of Israel’s 11 prime ministers. As one can see, the terms of five prime ministers were not consecutive. Ben-Gurion was prime minister from the establishment of the state (May 1948) until early 1954, and again, from November 1955 to June 1963. Netanyahu’s first term in office lasted three years (1996-1999), and he returned to office 10 years later, in March 2009.
Days in office in office of Israel’s 11 prime ministers
(As of July 20th)
Netanyahu’s long stint in office is striking in a comparative perspective as well. He is currently the third most “veteran” leader among the OECD nations. Only Turkish President Erdoğan and German Chancellor Merkel have been in office longer than Netanyahu. If we compare his term in office, with that of all leaders of established democracies since the end of WW2 (See table below), Netanyahu ranks 16th.
Leader | Country | Periods in office | Length in office (in days, as of July 20th 2019) | |
1 | Tage Erlander | Sweden | 1946-1969 | 8,404 |
2 | Pierre Werner | Luxembourg | 1959-1974, 1979-1984 | 7,415 |
3 | Jean-Claude Juncker | Luxembourg | 1995-2013 | 6,893 |
4 | Einar Henry Gerhardsen | Norway | 1945-1951, 1955-1965 | 6,226 |
5 | Jawaharlal Nehru | India | 1947-1964 | 6,130 |
6 | Recep Tayyip Erdoğan* | Turkey | 2003- | 5,972 |
7 | Robert Menzies | Australia | 1949-1966 | 5,878 |
8 | Helmut Kohl | Germany | 1982-1998 | 5,870 |
9 | Indira Gandhi | India | 1966-1977, 1980-1984 | 5,829 |
10 | Pierre Trudeau | Canada | 1968-1979, 1980-1984 | 5,642 |
11 | Konrad Adenauer | Germany | 1949-1963 | 5,143 |
12 | François Mitterrand** | France | 1981-1995 | 5,109 |
13 | Angela Merkel | Germany | 2005- | 4,988 |
14 | Felipe Gonzalez | Spain | 1982-1996 | 4,903 |
15 | David Oddsson | Iceland | 1991-2004 | 4,887 |
16 | Benjamin Netanyahu | Israel | 1996-1999, 2009- | 4,876 |
17 | David Ben-Gurion | Israel | 1948-1954, 1955-1963 | 4,875 |
18 | Bruno Kreisky | Austria | 1970-1983 | 4,781 |
19 | Viktor Orban | Hungary | 1998-2002, 2010- | 4,760 |
20 | Wilfried Martens | Belgium | 1979-1981, 1981-1992 | 4,467 |
21 | Jacques Chirac** | France | 1995-2007 | 4,382 |
22 | Ruud Lubbers | Netherlands | 1982-1994 | 4,309 |
23 | John Howard | Australia | 1996-2007 | 4,284 |
24 | Margaret Thatcher | UK | 1979-1990 | 4,226 |
25 | Keith Holyoake | New Zealand | 1957, 1960-1972 | 4,157 |
* Until 2014 as Prime Minister; since 2014 as president.
** Mitterand and Chirac’s terms in office were constitutionally limited.