The US House of Representatives has a leader again after three weeks of paralysis. On Wednesday, the Chamber of Congress elected Republican Mike Johnson as “Speaker” and thus to the third-highest state office in the USA. The conservative MP and supporter of former President Donald Trump received the required majority with 220 votes. There was no dissenting vote among Republicans against the 51-year-old politician from the southern US state of Louisiana, who is little known to the public.
This ends three weeks of chaos among the Republicans, who had blocked the House of Representatives in the midst of major international crises. The previous Republican chairman Kevin McCarthy was overthrown on October 3rd by a revolt by right-wing hardliners within his own ranks. In the following weeks, due to infighting among the Republicans, three candidates nominated by the group failed one after the other: Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan and, most recently, Tom Emmer.
Without a chairman, the House of Representatives could not pass any laws and therefore no new military aid for Israel and Ukraine. The USA is also threatened with a so-called shutdown in mid-November without a solution to the budget dispute.
