The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, after being reelected.ERIN SCOTT / AFP
The new United States Congress re-elected Nancy Pelosi as president of the House of Representatives this Sunday and launched the legislature that will mark the new Government of Joe Biden and that begins in a convulsed way.
A group of Senate Republicans plans to object to the confirmation of Biden as the winner of the election in the bicameral session next Wednesday and all eyes are on the second round elections this Tuesday in Georgia, where two seats will decide which party it will control the upper house and, therefore, the room for maneuver that the new Democratic Administration will have.
The inaugural session required several hours and developed in an extraordinary way, like all the political events of the year just ended, as a result of the pandemic and social distancing measures.
A record of at least 114 women - the battle for a seat has yet to be decided and a vacancy has emerged for a legislator elected in November and recently deceased - will serve in this Congress marked, again, by the thriving diversity of its members although, also, due to the seniority of its heavyweights.
Pelosi, 80, was elected with 216 votes, a narrow lead over her Republican rival for the job, who won 209. The result reflects the difficult time this powerful politician faces.
Democrats have managed to retain the majority in the lower house, with 222 representatives out of 435 representatives, but they have lost a dozen seats and have been left with the smallest advantage in the last 20 years.
Republicans have regained positions in this and are trying to preserve the dominance of the Senate, a House of important powers, such as the confirmation of high federal officials, including the judges of the Supreme Court.
Donald Trump's Party, which has enjoyed a majority of 52 out of 100 senators, won 50 in the November election, to 48 for Democrats, and the two seats in southern Georgia were tied among Republican candidates. and the Democrats, so they'll meet again at the polls this Tuesday, January 5.
If the Democrats win and manage to reach 50 senators, they would be in numerical equality with their political opponents, but the United States Constitution confers the tiebreaker vote on the vice president of the country, who as of January 20, when the new government takes office, will be Democrat Kamala Harris.
Before, a group of Republicans wants to continue making noise.
On Wednesday a bicameral session (of the Senate and the House of Representatives) takes place in Washington to count Biden's electoral votes and confirm him as the winner of the presidential elections, the last step before he is sworn in.
About a dozen senators and several dozen congressmen raise objections and thus force a vote on the result, which will simply delay and complicate the day.
Trump, who continues to accuse him of electoral fraud, has called for a large demonstration of his followers that same day.
A tense stage is approaching, as reflected by the attitude of the president.
This Sunday, a phone call from Trump to the Secretary of State of Georgia, Republican Brad Raffensperger, in which he pressures the official to "find" the necessary votes to reverse his defeat.
“I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have.
Because we won that state, ”he says, in an hour-long conversation broadcast by
The Washington Post
.
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