US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi decided to give up the leadership of the Democratic Party in the next House, after the midterm elections, in which the party lost the majority to the Republicans by a narrow margin.
Thus, Pelosi - who entered history as the first woman to preside over the US House of Representatives - ends a 20-year era of partisan leadership, marked in her last years by fierce political battles, especially with former President Donald Trump.
And Pelosi, 82, announced last Thursday that "the time has come for a new generation to lead the Democratic Assembly, which he so greatly postponed."
"I will not run for the Democratic administration in the next Congress," she added.
Pelosi was elected in 2003 as the leader of the Democratic minority in the House of Representatives, and reached the presidency in 2007.
US President Joe Biden praised her, stressing - in a statement - that she "protected our democracy from the violent and bloody insurrection on January 6," and described her as "the most important Speaker of the House of Representatives in our history."
Former President Barack Obama also praised her, calling her "one of the most accomplished legislators in American history."
With the end of the Pelosi era, the star of Representative Hakeem Jeffries, who seeks to succeed her in the leadership of the Democrats, is rising to be the first black leader of one of the two parties in the US Congress.