United States: stupor in the House of Representatives, unable to find a president

Representatives Matt Gaetz, and Patrick McHenry, in the House of Representatives this Tuesday, January 3, 2023, in Washington.

AP - Andrew Harnik

Text by: RFI Follow

2 mins

The American Congress, resulting from the last mid-term elections, last November, takes office without problem this Wednesday, January 4, 2023. At least the Senate with a Democratic majority.

Because for the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives, it's much more complicated.

The lower house ended its day on Tuesday without managing to elect a president after three rounds of voting.

Which is already historic.

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With our correspondent in Washington,

This is the first time this has happened in a century.

The candidate for the narrow Republican majority in the House, Kevin McCarthy, failed to gather his people from the start.

Far from there.

The California representative, who dreams of succeeding Nancy Pelosi in this post, can only afford four defections.

There were 19 entry, and 20 at the last vote.

A real snub, a public humiliation.

It must be said that the final conciliation meeting between Republicans on Tuesday went badly.

The representatives of the hard wing demand more concessions, guarantees from the McCarthy camp.

The person concerned explained that he had earned this post and that he would no longer negotiate.

But the problem is that to start working, the House of Representatives must absolutely elect a president, a “speaker”.

So far, the Democratic minority candidate Hakeem Jeffries is filling up with his people, and it is even he who obtains the most votes.

Not enough though.

218 votes are needed;

Republican Kevin McCarthy got 203 in the first two rounds, then 202 in the third round.

Before this already historic day, Kevin McCarthy recalled that he holds the record for the longest speech in the lower house, and that he is not afraid to tackle that of the number of votes to elect a " announcer”.

For information, this record dates from 1856. It took 133 ballots and two months.

►To re-read: Headlines: which speaker for the American House of Representatives?

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