Yesh Atid
Yesh Atid
Founded in 2012
Yesh Atid (literally: "There is a Future") is a center party that was established before the elections for the 19th Knesset by Israeli journalist and media personality Yair Lapid. The party was the surprise of the election: it managed to win 19 seats, positioning it as the second largest political faction in the Knesset. In the 2015 elections Yesh Atid lost 8 seats.
Yesh Atid defines itself as a center party, and focuses more on social issues, civic issues, and issues of governance than on political-security issues. Among the causes it champions, Yesh Atid calls for political reform by means of a significant increase in the electoral threshold, limiting the number of ministers in the government, and stabilizing the position of the Prime Minister. Education is a central focus of the party. Yesh Atid also advocates equal military service by members of all sectors of Israeli society and hopes that within several years every Israeli citizen will serve the country through military or national civil service.
In the run-up to the April 2019 elections Yesh Atid joined the Israel Resilience Party and Telem to form the Blue and White list. Yair Lapid was placed in the second spot in the joint list. The party maintained its position within Blue and White in the next two elections (September 2019 and 2020) but ran independently again in the 2021 and 2022 elections.
| Election Year | Votes Count | Number Of Seats | Share Of Votes | List Of Candidates | Platform |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 847,435 | 24 | 17.8 |
Candidates
|
|
| 2021 | 614,112 | 17 | 13.9 |
Candidates
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|
| 2015 | 371,602 | 11 | 8.8 |
Candidates
|
Platform
|
| 2013 | 543,458 | 19 | 14.3 |
Candidates
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Platform
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Yair Lapid, Shay Piron, Yael German, Orna Barbivai
Yesh Atid was the senior coalition partner in Benjamin Netanyahu’s third government, which took office in March 2013. Five ministries were given to representatives of this party: Finance (Yair Lapid), Education (Shay Piron), Health (Yael German), Welfare (Meir Cohen), and Science (Yaakov Peri). In early December 2014, Prime Minister Netanyahu fired Finance Minister Yair Lapid. Soon after, the rest of the ministers of Yesh Atid resigned their posts. Yesh Atid remained in opposition until June 2021. Following the 2021 elections it formed a coalition with seven other parties. The so-called Bennett-Lapid government held power for 18 months, while Yair Lapid served as prime minister from July to December 2022. Other Yesh Atid ministers included Orna Barbivai (Economy) and Karine Elharrar (Energy).