The 2026 state budget is due to receive final approval in the Knesset during Sunday night or the early hours of Monday morning. MKs will vote on the second and third readings of the 2026 Budget Law at almost the last minute allowed by law - just 48 hours before the deadline for the government to approve the budget, with failure to meet the deadline meaning that the Knesset will dissolve and there will be early elections.
Budget discussions in the Knesset plenum were supposed to begin today, and continue through the night in battles between the coalition and the opposition, in preparation for votes on Friday at noon.
But despite the pressing schedule, the budget discussions in the plenum were postponed to Sunday. One reason for this is the understanding that this time the coalition will probably succeed in escaping the traditional "filibuster", in which the opposition tries to exhaust and thwart the passage of the budget with long speeches and endless submissions of revisions throughout the night.
The Ministry of Finance believes and opposition sources also admit, the coalition will be able to bypass the long nightly debates. The coalition set the voting time for Sunday evening.
The revised schedule for passing the budget is to open the debates in the Knesset plenum on Sunday morning at around 9:00. The opposition's "filibuster" will move from a nightly format to a daily one and will last about 12 hours until 9:00 p.m. Then, almost 120 MKs will gather to vote on the budget, a process that the Ministry of Finance estimates from past experience will take about four hours. If there are no last-minute surprises and given a guaranteed majority in the plenum, the budget will be approved a little after midnight, in the early hours of Monday morning.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on March 26, 2026.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2026.