Yair Golan's Democrats list for the Knesset cements Labor's shift to the far Left

The recent primaries for the Democrats' Knesset list mark a pivotal moment for the party since Yair Golan took leadership in May 2024. A remarkable 86% of the party's 112,000 members participated in the vote, conducted entirely online for the first time. This high engagement underscores a renewed mobilization within Israel's left-wing movement and highlights the party's organizational resurgence.

Golan inherited a party on the brink of collapse following his predecessor Merav Michaeli's electoral failure in 2022, where Labor secured only four seats. At the time, Golan was one of the few prominent politicians willing to take responsibility for what was then a deeply unattractive political asset, with polls indicating a struggle to even cross the electoral threshold.

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To Golan’s credit, he inherited a political party on the verge of collapse after his predecessor, Merav Michaeli, had led Labor to an electoral disaster in the 2022 election, securing four seats

Despite these challenges, Golan succeeded in his promise to reunite Labor with Meretz and restore political relevance. Current projections suggest the Democrats could secure approximately ten seats in the upcoming 2026 election, an improvement over the combined performance of Labor and Meretz in 2022. However, the composition of the candidate list reveals a significant ideological drift.

While Meretz has historically been associated with the far-left, many long-time Labor supporters may be surprised by the party's increasing identification with this end of the political spectrum. This marks a departure from the party's past, which was once led by mainstream figures like Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres. The current candidate list for 2026, featuring incumbent Knesset members Naama Lazimi, Efrat Rayten, and Gilad Kariv in the top positions, suggests this transformation has now reached its peak.

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Despite these achievements, the composition of the party’s candidate list illustrates how far it has drifted from the Israeli mainstream.