Shutdown in the USA ends - the dispute in 7 points

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• Donald Trump ended the longest government shutdown in US history with his signature after 43 days and put an interim budget in place until the end of January.
• During the shutdown, hundreds of thousands of government employees received no pay, state aid was cut and many flights were canceled.
• The dispute between Republicans and Democrats revolved around subsidies for health insurance, with Democrats wanting to extend them and Republicans blocking them - an agreement remains in doubt.

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With his signature, President Donald Trump put the transitional budget previously passed by parliament into effect, ending the so-called shutdown after 43 days. "With my signature, the federal administration will now resume normal operations," said the Republican in the White House on Wednesday evening (local time).

Shortly beforehand, the second chamber of the US Congress, the House of Representatives, had voted on the legislative package passed by the Senate. The interim budget is only valid until the end of January. A total of 222 members of the House of Representatives voted in favor, 209 against. Six Democrats joined the Republican majority and voted in favor of the proposal.

The United States had not had a valid federal budget since October 1 and government operations were limited. Hundreds of thousands of government employees did not receive a salary, food aid for millions of Americans was cut off and thousands of flights were canceled because air traffic controllers were also no longer paid.

Given the polarized nature of US politics, a government shutdown is not entirely unusual because the two parties are often unable to reach an agreement on time. However, this was by far the longest shutdown in US history. On Wednesday it was 43 days. The previous longest shutdown lasted 35 days at the turn of 2019 - that was during Trump's first term as president.

The shutdown ends with Trump's signature. However, the transitional budget is only valid until the end of January. If a regular budget cannot be passed by then, there could be another shutdown from February.

Trump's Republicans and the opposition Democrats had been engaged in a bitter dispute over the budget for weeks. Since last weekend, the consequences have become increasingly serious, particularly with regard to the payment of food aid and flight cancellations.

Trump's Republicans showed no concessions, but for some Democrats in the Senate the pressure was apparently too great. They gave up their resistance on Sunday and helped the legislative package to succeed.

The Democrats in the Senate made their approval dependent on measures relating to healthcare. Specifically, it was about tax credits for health insurance premiums for more than 20 million Americans, which expire at the end of the year. The Democrats wanted to extend these subsidies. The Republicans opposed this, which is why many policyholders now face the threat of their monthly contributions doubling in some cases.

The Republicans in the Senate promised the Democrats that they would vote on healthcare costs in Congress in December. However, an extension of the subsidies there is unlikely. And even if they succeed, the House of Representatives would still have to agree - which is considered almost impossible.

Trump's Republicans have a majority in both chambers of parliament. Polls had also recently indicated that more Americans were blaming the ruling Republicans for the shutdown.

From the perspective of parts of the party base, the renegade Democrats in the Senate have given up without having achieved any significant concessions. However, parts of the Democratic leadership believe that it is a success to have positioned the issue - and the Republicans' obstructionist stance - more clearly in public. They may already be eyeing the mid-term elections for Congress in a year's time, in which the Democrats want to blame the Republicans for higher health insurance costs.