Midterm elections | Republicans take control of the House of Representatives

(Washington) Republicans regained control of the US House of Representatives on Wednesday, after a laborious vote count, according to US media, giving themselves the power to block Joe Biden’s policy until 2024 and resulting in a division of Congress.

After failing to take over the Senate, the Conservative Party will only have a very narrow majority in the lower house, however, far from the “giant wave” promised by Donald Trump, who nevertheless announced a new candidacy on Tuesday evening. to the White House. The former president’s lieutenants have indeed received more than mixed results in the mid-term elections.

NBC, CNN, Fox News and CBS projected Wednesday that Republicans now have at least 218 in the House, or the majority of seats.

If the projections of the American media are confirmed with all the seats, the performance of Joe Biden will be the best score of a president in more than 20 years, this election being traditionally for the power in place.

Unravel

This very thin Republican majority in the lower house also risks significantly complicating its governance. Conservative Party heavyweight Kevin McCarthy was nominated by his peers on Tuesday to run for Speaker of the House of Representatives, but his political future will depend on a perilous election in January.

“The era of Democratic domination is over,” he warned, however.

With a Republican House and a Democratic Senate, Joe Biden’s party will not be able to push through new big plans.

But neither do their rivals.

However, the Republicans had threatened to unravel certain measures adopted under Joe Biden if they regained control of the two chambers. They wanted in particular to reconsider the funds allocated to the tax services to hire new agents, or on certain reforms in the world of education.

They had also planned to attack the right to abortion or to legislate on firearms, which would have pushed Joe Biden to use his right of veto.

red wall

The 79-year-old president will not ultimately be forced to camp on this defensive posture. And will on the contrary have to use his negotiating skills, inherited from his long career as a senator, to avoid, in particular, a paralysis of the federal administration (the famous “shutdown”).

But the president’s outstretched hand risks hitting a red wall, the color of the conservatives.

Even with a slim majority in the House, Republicans will also have substantial oversight power, which they have promised to use for a host of investigations into Joe Biden’s handling of the pandemic or the withdrawal of Afghanistan.

They could also go after his son Hunter, accused of using his name to do business in Ukraine and China.

The conservative party intends to exploit any potential Democratic flaw, keeping the 2024 presidential election in sight. And with his declaration of candidacy on Tuesday, Donald Trump launched a merciless fight for the party’s nomination.