Let’s take the same and start again: the Republicans will try again on Thursday to end the paralysis they have caused in the American Congress for more than a week by agreeing on a new “speaker”.
• Also read: The American Congress, still without a “speaker,” is sinking into a crisis
The Conservatives are meeting in the middle of the day to try to break out of this unprecedented impasse.
Otherwise, the United States will be unable to vote for new aid to Israel, a historic ally in the midst of a war with Hamas. Or an additional envelope for Ukraine, which was invaded by Russia, which has been discussed for weeks.
Congress has two chambers: one, the Senate, is won by Joe Biden’s Democrats, but the other, the House of Representatives, in the hands of the Republicans, is experiencing unprecedented chaos.
Historic impeachment
Its leader, Kevin McCarthy, was fired on October 3, a victim of fratricidal clashes between moderate elected officials and Trumpist troublemakers within his party.
In its more than 200-year history, the United States has never removed the speaker.
This fall has exposed the gaping fissures that run through American conservatives a year before the 2024 presidential election.
But it also left this chamber, supposedly one of the most powerful in the world, incredibly paralyzed.
The institution is currently unable to submit a text for a vote, a mess that the US – still clinging to its role as world policeman – would have been happy to forego.
Without a “speaker,” the American Congress cannot vote on a new state budget. The latter expires in a few weeks and once again puts the world’s leading economic power at risk of its public administration being paralyzed.
- Listen to the American political column with Professor Luc Laliberté about QUB radio :
Scalise is looking for support
Several ways have been explored to put an end to this confusion.
Two candidates, one from party headquarters, the other named by Donald Trump – the two opposing factions – faced off in an informal election on Wednesday.
Louisiana elected official Steve Scalise, leader of the Republican caucus and known for surviving a shooting in 2017, won that election against loyal Trumpist Jim Jordan.
The fifty-year-old hoped to immediately submit his candidacy to a vote with all of the chamber’s elected representatives. A necessary step to get to the bass.
But a dozen conservatives immediately made it clear that they would oppose his candidacy at any cost – citing the elected official’s budget, the fact that he has cancer or his speech. 20 years ago at a party conference in connection with a former Ku leader of the Klux Klan.
Steve Scalise is planning a series of meetings to bring these members into line, but it currently appears unlikely that a resolution will be found on Thursday.
Joe Biden’s Democratic Party is in the minority in the House of Representatives and is therefore primarily a spectator of the chaotic negotiations in Congress. Unless there is a surprise alliance with moderate Republicans that could also put an end to this unprecedented situation.