HASIdolized by some and reviled by others, powerful American politician Nancy Pelosi, 82, a Democrat, has announced that she will not run for the post of leader of her party in Congress. The relative of President Joe Biden made this decision on November 19, 2022, just a few weeks after the attack on her husband, Paul, who was attacked with a hammer in their house in San Francisco (California). The attack too many, after several decades of a brilliant career which transformed this symbol of the establishment into a true figure of power, guarantor of American democracy.
The parliamentarian appears for the first time in The world on September 6, 1991, when she lays a wreath in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China, in tribute to pro-democracy protesters who were violently repressed two years earlier, in 1989. The Associated Press and Reuters news report describes how police arrest several members of the American television crews who came to film these three elected officials with their banners “To those who died for democracy in China”.
In the United States too, the elected official of San Francisco is fighting for her progressive values. On April 27, 1993, Alain Frachon, correspondent in Washington DC, recounts, during a demonstration of homosexuals that had taken place in the capital two days earlier, these young people in “Scottish kilt and black combat boots” and the reading of a letter from President Bill Clinton, by Nancy Pelosi: “I stand with you in the fight for equality for all Americans, including gays and lesbians, in this great country founded on the principle that all men are born equal. »
A historic appointment
In August 1998, the Monica Lewinsky affair tore America apart and some politicians would like to see President Clinton resign. In the midst of the chaos, Nancy Pelosi emphasizes above all her attachment to the stability of the State. “Of course, many of us are disgusted [par le comportement du président], (…) but the tab that will have to be paid in the event of resignation or impeachment, particularly in terms of credibility, it is the American people who will pay it, ” quotes Sylvie Kauffmann. Deemed too liberal for a majority of Americans, the leader of the Democratic minority in the House of Representatives is initially considered by the Republican camp as a fairly harmless opponent. “With such leaders, they think, the Democratic Party has no chance of regaining a majority in the country”, explains Patrick Jarreau, in April 2003 in an article devoted to “San Francisco, the disobedient”.
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