The South Korean opposition wins the legislative elections and further complicates the president’s management | International

The People’s Power Party (PPP) of South Korea, currently in government, has suffered a clear defeat in the parliamentary elections held this Wednesday, which represents a challenge for the South Korean president, Yoon Suk-yeol, to implement his political agenda in the three remaining years of his mandate. One day after the legislative elections, Yoon has committed to “reform the Administration” and do “everything possible to stabilize the economy and improve the quality of life of the population,” according to the presidential office and reported by the news agency. South Korean Yonhap. His party, the conservative PPP, obtained 108 of the 300 seats in the National Assembly (Parliament), far behind the opposition, the Democratic Party (PD, center-left), which secured a comfortable majority with 175 seats. .

“I will humbly accept the will of the people expressed in the general elections,” Yoon assured. The prime minister (a position equivalent to a vice presidency), Han Duck-soo, the head of the presidential cabinet, Lee Kwan-seop, and two other senior advisors to the president have offered to resign to assume responsibility for the electoral defeat, Yonhap reports. The one who has made his resignation official after the debacle has been Han Dong-hoon, the until now leader of the PPP and a figure very close to the president.

Analysts considered the legislative elections a referendum on the management of the Yoon Administration, whose popularity has plummeted in recent months – barely 35% gave him approval before the elections – due to the absence of tangible progress in policies. social and economic. South Korea faces a range of financial and social problems, from a slowing economy, runaway housing prices and rising inflation, to a rapidly aging population and a huge gender gap. Added to all this is a doctors’ strike that began in February and has caused cancellations of operations and treatments.

Electoral participation, at 67%, has been the highest in 32 years, which is why many experts believe that voters have wanted to punish the Government at the polls because they consider it to be disconnected from the reality that the majority of South Koreans face daily. .

According to the latest count from the National Electoral Commission, the opposition forces (led by the PD) have renewed their majority in the National Assembly, and have achieved 19 more parliamentarians than in the 2020 legislative elections. However, their 175 seats are not enough to achieve a supermajority, which could have opened the door to proposing the removal of the president.

Yoon, who assumed the presidency in May 2022, is the first leader of South Korean democracy who has not had control of the National Assembly at any time during his term. Now, his party has been even more weakened in the Chamber than in the first stretch of the legislature (with six fewer deputies than four years ago), a fact that not only undermines Yoon’s authority within Parliament, but could also diminish his influence over legislators of his own party. However, the PPP retains enough seats to impose presidential vetoes, a mechanism that Yoon has used nine times in less than two years in power.

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According to local media, citizens feel that the president has been unable to promote his reform program in key areas such as health, education, employment and pensions; and that he has failed to deliver on some of his key election promises, including lowering corporate tax and other tax incentives for businesses.

Yoon won the 2022 presidential election by the smallest margin in history against PD leader Lee Jae-myung, who has led a very combative electoral campaign against the South Korean president. However, after his party’s victory, he has urged the Government and opposition to work together to promote economic recovery. “We must join forces to overcome the crisis in the economic livelihood of consumers,” said Lee. Rebuilding Korea has emerged as the third political force, a party founded a month ago by former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk and which has won 12 seats.

The results of the legislative elections should not have any impact on the diplomatic agenda, since the South Korean Constitution grants exclusive authority to the president in matters of foreign relations and limits the influence of Parliament in this area. Yoon has been characterized by strengthening the alliance between Seoul and Washington, and advocating a rapprochement with Tokyo, despite the fact that Japan and South Korea have historical disputes that continue to have political repercussions. All of this, with the aim of containing the growing nuclear threat from North Korea and curbing China’s influence in the region. The opposition advocates for a more balanced approach and accuses Yoon of having unnecessarily antagonized the country’s largest trading partner and pushed Pyongyang into Beijing’s sphere of influence.