Is the tactic of coalition coalition between the progressive party and the Democrats expired?
“There is no unity.” This is the presidential election plan, which was revealed in an interview with the Kyunghyang Shinmun by Justice Party lawmaker Shim Sang-jung, who declared his candidacy for president. The object of unification he mentioned is the current passport and the Democratic Party of Korea. I intend to finish it to the end. This is a story about unification and not resigning midway on condition of unification.
In the presidential election to be held on March 9 next year, it is not only the Democratic Party and People’s Power preliminary candidates who are currently in the opinion polls. Numerous candidates from internal and external parties are running for office. However, there are hardly any reports except for preliminary candidates from the two main opposition parties. why? The reason is simple. Because there is no chance of winning. What is worth noting, however, is the minority party candidates in the parliament.
On August 12th, Rep. Shim Sang-jung was the first to declare a candidacy in the Justice Party, but within the party, two or three more people are expected to run for office, except for Shim. The most influential is former lawmaker Lee Jung-mi. There is also speculation that Hwang Soon-shik, chairman of the Gyeonggi Provincial Party, will also run for office. What people around the party are paying attention to is whether or not Cho Seong-ju, former director of the Future Politics Center, who left the party and served as the Seoul Labor Cooperation Officer, was recently restored. One party official said, “Recently, a bill to amend the party rules is on the agenda, but anyone can see it as an amendment for people like Jo Seong-ju. Because of this, as a result, it is a favorable composition for Shim Sang-jung.”
It is suspected that the candidacy of former center director Cho is part of Shim’s ‘big plan’ to run as the presidential candidate of the Justice Party. “Since the local elections are held three months after the presidential election, we can draw the same composition as mayor of Seoul and Gyeonggi Governor Kim Jong-dae,” said this person.
Sim Sang-jung and other candidates for the Justice Party are:
Candidate Shim said that “a coalition tactic is not a consideration” in this election, but the Democratic Party has another option. It is the Open Democrats. The Open Democratic Party, which tends to support the Moon Jae-in government, can play a role in next year’s presidential election as it did in the last general election and the April 7 by-election. Kim Seong-hoe, spokesperson for the Open Democratic Party, said, “In the last by-election for Seoul mayor, participation in the unification of passports was decided by voting. said. Realistically, so far, it is known that no person inside or outside the Open Democratic Party has expressed a will to run for office.
The transition of the times, which participated in the unification in the April 7 Seoul mayor by-election, is going to take a different path this time. Rep. Cho Jung-hoon, who had yielded a single passport candidate to Seoul mayor Park Young-seon at the time, said in a phone call with reporters on August 18, “I think this election is the greatest opportunity to independently show the people the value of moderate utility.” In our political reality, where the political forces represented by the two parties are not enough, the position of changing the times is that the election should be for the middle and pragmatic politics of the third zone,” he said.
In reality, it sounds like a declaration that we will work together with former Deputy Prime Minister Kim Dong-yeon, who declared the third zone, Ahn Cheol-su, and other former lawmakers Geum Tae-seop, who recently declared a breakdown in the party’s unification negotiations with the power of the people. Rep. Cho said, “We can make a decision through the party leadership meeting sooner or later, around the end of August, with several choices,” leaving room for “could run for office.”
In the case of Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung, a strong passport candidate, and the Basic Income Party, which has a common denominator of ‘basic income’, the concern is whether they will form a policy alliance if Lee Jae-myung is selected as a candidate.
Kim Young-gil, secretary-general of the Basic Income Party, said, “At the party level, we have established a basic election plan based on the basic principle of running a presidential candidate, and we will disclose it soon.” The biggest problem is the age limit for running for president, which allows only those over the age of 40 to run for president. Rep. Yong Hye-in or Shin Ji-hye, the leader of this party, cannot run for office. “Currently, we are trying to reach out to prominent civil society and labor leaders who agree with the purpose of our party,” Kim said. He said, “In any case, if we do not focus on candidate response, we have a perception that it is not easy to agree on a basic income political pledge with Governor Lee Jae-myung or other progressive party candidates, or cooperate or criticize it. ” he added.
Jinseong Party member Progressive Party beyond the Democratic Labor Party
The Minsaeng Party became an outside party in the last general election, but before that, it was a party with about 20 incumbent lawmakers active. Former representatives Chung Dong-young and Sohn Hak-gyu, who were influential politicians in the passport, still maintain their party status. After the April 7 by-election, the Minsaeng Party, which has fallen into turmoil over the course of the party, is currently preparing to elect a new representative system on August 28 as the joint acting system of Lee Kwan-seung and Kim Jung-gi, the emergency response committee chairman. Park Chae-soon, former chairman of the Gimpo-si-eul, who served as the chairman of the Gyeonggi Party, argued that “even if the Minsaeng Party cannot take the initiative and change Korean politics, it has potential as a third force rather than a party with one or two members of the National Assembly.”
He predicted, “Depending on how President Moon Jae-in’s political power will be by March next year, if the Democratic Party’s power is weakened, the People’s Party will become an alternative force in Honam because the people’s power is not an alternative,” he predicted.
After the dissolution of the United Progressive Party, the Progressive Party, which assembled as a separate People’s Party from the Justice Party and produced lawmakers, is now an outside party, but has the largest number of members of the True Catholic Party. Jeong Tae-heung, former chairman of the party’s policy planning committee and former president of the Korea University Student Council and chairman of the Han Chong-ryun, said, “The number of Jinseong Party members paying party fees has exceeded 80,000.” are gathering,” he said.
In next year’s presidential election, party leader Kim Jae-yeon has already announced his candidacy, and the main focus is to gain support from labor and popular groups such as the KCTU. Chairman Chung said, “The first contribution to the creation of the Democratic Labor Party, the predecessor of the Progressive Party, was the Confederation of Trade Unions, and since its inception, the Confederation of Trade Unions had an exclusive support policy for the Democratic Labor Party as a workers’ progressive party with the goal of building industrial unions and realizing workers’ political power.” “After the United Progressive Party crisis in 2012, we withdrew our exclusive support policy, but historically, we have retreated from the workers’ political power,” he added.
What is noteworthy is the movement of the KCTU. In early September, a press conference will be held in which the Confederation of Trade Unions and the progressive parties in and outside the House will decide and announce the presidential election policy together. Chairman Chung said, “Even in the last general election, the KCTU supported candidates from five political parties: the Justice Party, the Progressive Party, the Labor Party, the Green Party, and the Social Transformation Workers Party. I know that he will return as the representative system,” he added. “In the case of the Labor Party, we are discussing this election with the Socialist Workers Party and others about building a single socialist party in the process of mobilizing socialist leftists to produce socialist candidates,” said Nao-won, deputy leader of the Labor Party, who is participating in the discussion. He added, “With other political parties such as the Progressive Party, we have been operating a joint table when doing business at the base level, and as an extension of that, we are planning a joint response to the presidential election at the central level.”
A characteristic of this election is that the opposition parties continue to argue about the unification or coalition of conservative right-wing candidates for regime change, but there is no talk of an election coalition or policy solidarity with the Democratic Party in the progressive camp.
It is clearly a different situation from the past, but looking back, it is not unique to this election.
Considering the special situation immediately after the impeachment and candlelight revolution, Sim Sang-jung, the Justice Party candidate, who was running for the 2017 presidential election, completed the race to the end and received about 2,017,000 votes (6.2%). In the presidential election, the tactic of solidarity and coalition with the ruling party was virtually the last to resign during the 2012 presidential election, when then-unified progressive party candidate Lee Jeong-hee resigned. Strictly speaking, in this case as well, it was a unilateral resignation, not through discussion with then-Democratic Party candidate Moon Jae-in.
Is the tactic of solidarity and coalition, which was called by the same name as the Democratic Alliance in the past, expired?
Kim Chan-hui, co-chairman of the Green Party, said, “In a broad sense, the external capabilities of the institutional party that were called jayah in the past were continuously absorbed by the institutional party, starting with the Pyeongmin-ryun of the Peace Democratic Party in 1988. It is true that the system was absorbed or weakened during the former Seoul mayor period,” he said. “But on the other hand, I think a new solidarity is emerging as the global climate crisis deepens,” he said. A new red-green alliance is appearing all over the world as the awareness of the problem of the right transition appears in the labor movement.”
Climate Crisis New Red-Green Alliance Starting Point?
Regarding the debate about the presidential election centered on the KCTU, former lawmaker Park Won-seok, who is in charge of the presidential election preparation group of the Justice Party, said, “I am participating in the position of listening to the story, but I do not expect a large joint response plan for the election from there.” . He said, “It is clear that the KCTU is the most important mass organization, but I don’t think election solidarity between political parties is possible because the KCTU is at the center. There is no unit,” he pointed out.
Regarding the discussion of amendments to the party rules for Jo Seong-ju’s candidacy, he said, “It’s not true at all, and I know that (ex-Chairman Cho Seong-joo, who has been restored) does not have the right to run for office,” he said. I am not doing it,” he added. He said, “The election solidarity is open to seek a major transformation in Korean society that needs change against the winner-take-all bipartisan politics of the vested parties,” he said. We are discussing joint responses to the 2022 two major elections for political reform and social transformation with the Future Party,” he said.
Director Park continued, “The local elections to be held in the future are likely to depend on the results of the election, so I see it as a political schedule with risks and opportunities.” He said, “In the case of local elections, as there are about 4,100 elected positions for public office, the Justice Party alone cannot present all candidates,” he said. , shouldn’t we achieve the Rainbow Solidarity?” After confirming the basic election plan at the National Committee on August 22, the Justice Party plans to issue an election notice on September 16 and proceed with candidate registration after the Chuseok holiday. Director Park added, “We are aiming to elect the final candidate of the Justice Party around October 25.”
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