The prosecution, the scandals and even the stab of a assailant will not have prevented Lee Jae-Myung, a former factory worker of modest origin, to win the South Korean presidential election.
The result remains to be confirmed by the electoral authority, but the survey of the ballot boxes from the three main national television channels gives it a very comfortable advance on its conservative rival, Kim Moon-Soo (PPP, right).
A triumph, after his defeat of a hair in the 2022 election against the then PPP candidate, Yoon Suk Yeol, dismissed for trying to impose martial law in December. An aborted coup which has notably had the consequence of triggering this early poll.
Rarious fact in a country where social origin is a national obsession, Lee Jae-Myung, 61, cultivates his own children’s fairy tale of the working class who became a political leader to persuade the South Koreans that he will be able to solve their problems.
Disabled after a factory accident
Born in Andong, in eastern South Korea, Lee Jae-Myung must start working in a glove factory at the age of 11, for lack of money to enter secondary school. But at 13, his arm remains stuck in a press: he is handicapped for life.
After thinking of suicide, he begins to frequent evening courses, then the law faculty, until it became a lawyer specializing in human rights. Coming into politics in 2010, he militates against inequalities, in a country faced with the outbreak of housing prices and a high rate of young people.
“We can worry about people who tremble outside in the cold while we sit in our living room in our living room,” said Lee Jae-Myung during an interview in 2022. “But you can never really understand their pain. »»
Opposed to martial law
South Korea has been without stable leader since the deputies suspended Yeol Yeol in December for its failed attempt to establish martial law on the night of December 3 to 4, 2024.
Lee Jae-Myung rushed with other deputies to vote against the suspension of the civil regime despite an army dam sent by Yoon Suk Yeol, and broadcast live on the social networks his journey to Parliament. “It was a race against the clock,” he described in an interview with AFP.
With great political experience, he was mayor of Seongnam, a city on the outskirts of Seoul, for eight years, contributing in particular to the closure of the largest canine meat market in the country. He was then governor of the province of Gyeonggi, the most populous in the country, for more than three years.
Hunger strike and stab
In 2022, he first presented himself to the South Korean presidency, but failed extreme accuracy against Yoon Suk Yeol, a former novice prosecutor in politics.
He was hospitalized in 2023 after 19 days of a hunger strike started to denounce the “incompetent and violent” policies of the conservative government. He then appears as a weight candidate in the polls to run for the presidency again.
In January 2024, a man claiming to want to prevent him from becoming a head of state stabbing him around the neck during a trip to Busan (south): Lee Jae-Myung borders on death and underwent an emergency surgical operation.
Lee Jae-Myung says it wants to strengthen the artificial intelligence sector (AI) for South Korea to join the top 3 of the most at the forefront in this area. He also hopes that officials of the attempted taxation of martial law to be reported.
Quoted in several cases
But Lee Jae-Myung is also the subject of numerous legal proceedings, especially for breach of trust and corruption. The political leader denies any fault and claims to be the target of politically motivated accusations.
One of the most resounding cases in which it is cited concerns supposed links with a company suspected of having illegally transferred eight million dollars to North Korea.
Lee Jae-Myung is also at the heart of four corruption cases, most of which are linked to alleged doubtful contracts concluded when he was mayor of Seongnam. Particularly disturbing: at least five people linked to the various scandals concerning Lee Jae-Myung were found dead, most of them seeming to commit suicide.
At the beginning of May, the South Korean Supreme Court canceled its relaxation in a case of violation of the electoral law and ordered a new trial, which could open the way to its ineligibility at the end of its possible mandate as president.
His opponents argued that the accusations targeting him were serious enough to disqualify the ballot. “With this type of corruption accusations, how can we request a public mandate,” asked Kim Moon-Soo, his main opponent, during a televised debate.