It is a divided Congress that comes out of the midterm elections of 2018, with the Democrats who are aiming to reconquer the House, while the Republicans maintain, and strengthen, the majority in the Senate.
Even before the results of the West Coast, traditionally democratic, the Democrats' victory appeared consistent, with CNN expecting that in the end the party, which needed to pull 23 seats from the Republicans to obtain the majority, could get to have a majority of 35 seats.In the Senate - where 35 seats are renewed, mostly at the time of the Democrats, some in GOP majority states - President Donald Trump's party are registering important victories, winning four seats that were Democrats, in Indiana, Missouri, Floria and North Dakota. And confirming the seats in Texas and Tennessee.
TRUMP - "A night of extraordinary success, thank you all!". This is what Donald Trump wrote on Twitter, despite the defeat in the Chamber. A defeat that appears, however, counterbalanced by the clearly positive results of the president's party in the Senate, with victories in states where in recent weeks Trump had made an intense campaign.
The White House has announced that the president has then called the leaders of the Congress, Republicans and Democrats. In the Senate he spoke with the Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell and with the minority leader, Chuck Schumer. While in the House with the outgoing Speaker, the Republican Paul Ryan who did not re-run yesterday's elections, and the minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, destined to return to the leadership of the Chamber.
In congratulating Pelosi, Trump "appreciated the appeal to the bipartisan spirit" made by the democratic leader in his speech of victory; the deputy chief of Pelosi's staff wrote on twitter.
PELOSI - "Tomorrow will be a new day for America". So Nancy Pelosi celebrated the victory of the Democrats in the Chamber thanking "the incredible, dynamic, candidates, expression of the difference, who have reconquered the Chamber for Americans".
To the supporters who kept on chanting "Speaker, Speaker", the democratic leader - who was the first woman to be elected to lead the House in 2007, keeping the position until 2011 - promised that the new democratic majority will restore the role of "control and balance" on the work of the White House but will also try to carry on a bipartisan policy. "We are all tired of the divisions," he said.
Pelosi also promised to work to lower the costs of health care and to fight corruption. "We will wipe out the swamp of money interests in our elections and clean up corruption to make Washington work for all Americans," he concluded.
"DIVIDED NATION, WE FIND COMMON LAND" - "We do not need an election to know that we are a divided nation, and now we also have a divided Washington". So Paul Ryan, the outgoing Speaker, recognizes the defeat of the Republicans in the House, underlining how the American history has shown repeatedly that "the party in power is always difficult in its first midterm elections".
The Republican wanted to underline how the next Congress, which will have a Democratic majority in the House and a Republican in the Senate, will have to try to overcome the divisions. "As a country and as a government, we must look for a way to find common ground to build the success of this Congress," said Ryan, who has not re-nominated for a new term.