MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th November, 2018) The US midterm elections may have significant consequences for the domestic politics, as Democrats, now in control of the House of Representatives, could threaten US President Donald Trump with impeachment; but the US foreign policy is unlikely to change substantially, European politicians told Sputnik.
According to the latest preliminary results of the elections held on Tuesday, Democrats took control of the House of Representatives, but Republicans managed to secure their hold on the Senate.
Democrats could use the possibility of impeachment as a leverage, Damien Lempereur, the spokesman of the Debout La France party, told Sputnik.
"The fact that the Democrats control the House of Representatives, it's an important fact, but only if you are looking at domestic US politics. Maybe they could use now the impeachment threat to balance Donald Trump's policies or maybe they could try to use this to convince more people that Donald Trump is wrong, that he may be impeached," Lempereur said.
The desire to see the president impeached is strong among Democrats' supporters: About 77 percent of US voters who identify as Democrats back impeachment, the exit polls of the CNN broadcaster showed.
At the same time, Nancy Pelosi, the leader of the Democrats in the House said Tuesday that she was not in favor of the impeachment. According to Pelosi, the decision to start this procedure would have to depend on the results of the investigation into Trump campaign's alleged collusion with Moscow.
The relationship between the White House and the House of Representatives will be interesting to watch, Alexis Rodzianko, President and CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia, told Sputnik.
"Will be interesting to see the dynamics between the White House and House of Representatives. Could be difficult if Democrats choose to be confrontational. Or we could be surprised positively if there is a new-found bipartisan cooperation," Rodzianko said.
Since Trump was elected president in 2016, he has had to operate amid the allegations of Russia's interference in the US vote, repeatedly refuted by Moscow.
Investigations into Russia's purported meddling were launched in the Senate and in the House. The House Intelligence Committee said in April they found no evidence of any collusion between Trump campaign and Moscow, but the Democratic minority believed the probe was closed too early. Trump has dismissed allegations of his campaign having colluded with Russia.
The president has already hinted that Republican-controlled Senate may counter any further investigations by the Democrats-held House.
"If the Democrats think they are going to waste Taxpayer Money investigating us at the House level, then we will likewise be forced to consider investigating them for all of the leaks of Classified Information, and much else, at the Senate level. Two can play that game!" the president said on Twitter earlier in the day.
The president then immediately tweeted his support for Pelosi as the House Speaker.
Trump's policy on Russia is unlikely to change after the midterms, Art Franczek, the president of the American Institute of business and Economics in Moscow, told Sputnik.
"In terms of how this affects Russia policy: it doesn't make a lot of difference because 99 percent of the US Congress is anti-Russia and this is simply based on how it votes on the anti-Russia sanctions policy. The vote is almost unanimous ... Democrats and Republicans are pretty much equally anti-Russia. With the takeover of the House by the Democrats you are going to see more draconian policy coming from there," Franczek said.
Austrian lawmaker and OSCE Parliamentary Assembly observer at the US midterm elections Roman Haider believes that Trump is unlikely to bow down to the opposition-held House.
"Don't expect any change to policies as Republicans could keep the Senate and the President is not the type of person that lets himself be influenced by any majority in the Representatives House," Haider told Sputnik.
Meanwhile, Lempereur is not expecting any changes to the US-French relations.
"I don't believe that the results of the US midterms are going to impact US relations to France. I don't believe so because Trump is not weakened by this election ... So I don't think he is going to change his foreign policy, and basically I don't think it's going to change anything," the French party spokesman said.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas tweeted earlier on Wednesday that he was not expecting any changes in Trump's policy either. At the same time, Maas commented on the new composition of the Congress, pointing out that there was more diversity, more women and more younger people. The German foreign minister said the US voters thus largely confirmed their country's role as the champion of freedom and diversity.
