(Washington) We take the same ones, and we start again: the Republicans will try again on Thursday to put an end to the paralysis that they have caused for more than a week in the American Congress, by agreeing on a new president of the House of Representatives.
The conservatives met in the middle of the day to try to break this unprecedented impasse.
Otherwise, the United States will not be able to vote for new aid to Israel, a historic ally in the midst of war with Hamas. Or an additional envelope for Ukraine invaded by Russia, under discussion for weeks.
Congress has two chambers: one, the Senate, is won by Joe Biden’s Democrats, but it is the other, the House of Representatives, in the hands of the Republicans, which is experiencing an unprecedented mess.
Historic impeachment
Its leader, Kevin McCarthy, was dismissed on October 3, the victim of fratricidal quarrels between moderate elected officials and Trumpist troublemakers within his party.
Never, in its more than 200 years of history, has the United States removed the “speaker”.
This ousting has exposed the gaping fractures that run through American conservatives, one year before the 2024 presidential election.
But it also plunged this chamber, supposed to be one of the most powerful in the world, into incredible paralysis.
The institution is currently incapable of submitting any text to a vote, a mess that the United States – still attached to its role as world policeman – would have liked to do without.
Without a “speaker”, the American Congress cannot vote on a new budget for the federal state either. The latter expires in a few weeks, once again placing the world’s leading economic power in danger of paralysis of its public administration.
Scalise seeks support
Several avenues have been studied to put an end to this imbroglio.
Two candidates, one from the party’s general staff, the other dubbed by Donald Trump, – the two opposing factions – faced each other during an informal election on Wednesday.
Louisiana elected representative Steve Scalise, Republican group leader and known for surviving a shooting in 2017, won this election against loyal Trumpist Jim Jordan.
The fifty-year-old hoped to be able to immediately submit his candidacy to a vote with all the elected representatives of the Chamber. A necessary step to access the perch.
But around ten conservatives immediately made it known that they would oppose his candidacy at all costs – pointing out the elected official’s budgetary positions, the fact that he suffers from cancer, or his speech given there. 20 years ago at a convention linked to a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan.
“Steve is a man who has serious problems because of his cancer,” declared Donald Trump in an interview, assuring that the elected official would do better to avoid “the stress” linked to such functions.
A series of meetings are planned by Steve Scalise to try to bring the refractories back into line, but for the moment it seems unlikely that a solution will be found on Thursday.
Joe Biden’s Democratic Party is in the minority in the House and therefore mainly spectators of the chaotic negotiations in Congress. Unless there is a surprise alliance with moderate Republicans, which could also put an end to this unprecedented situation.