Lee Hye-hoon: "Yoo Seung-min, a major sacrifice as a presidential candidate... Will review proportional satellite party issues upon merger"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] On the 9th, Lee Hye-hoon, a member of the New Conservative Party, commented on Yoo Seung-min, the chairman of the New Conservative Party's Conservative Reconstruction Committee, declaring he would not run, saying, "He made the greatest sacrifice as a presidential candidate," and expressed her intention to review the issue of proportional satellite parties during the future merger process.

On the morning of the 10th, Lee appeared on MBC Radio's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus' and responded to the suggestion that there might be an option to run in the metropolitan area besides not running, saying, "Not running is the greatest sacrifice compared to ordinary lawmakers when viewed as a presidential candidate."

She said, "For the past year, Representative Hwang was a presidential candidate without a badge. Without a badge, one is excluded in the National Assembly situation, so at every critical and decisive moment, it is difficult to exercise influential leadership, which forces one into such a situation." She added, "When Hwang Kyo-ahn, the leader of the Liberty Korea Party, was pressured by the Public Official Recommendation Committee to choose between not running and running in Jongno, he chose Jongno instead of not running, which proves that for presidential candidates, a difficult electoral district is worse than not running."

Regarding Yoo's future course, she explained, "It depends on how the merger proceeds. Depending on how much the parts Yoo mentions, such as employment succession and new party formation, are upheld, so-called election support campaigns or other actions will differ." Regarding whether the Liberty Korea Party will accept the new party formation proposal, she questioned, "The Innovation and Integration Promotion Committee announced six principles, explicitly stating that a new party formation must occur. Since Leader Hwang himself declared he would accept the new party formation, can a presidential candidate and leader of the largest party speak so lightly about it?"

Regarding the Liberty Korea Party's creation of the proportional satellite party 'Future Korea Party,' she said, "Because the mixed-member proportional representation system was introduced, if the Korea Party and the New Conservative Party remain as they are and each only nominates proportional representatives here, even those who criticize the 'Future Korea Party' as a trick cannot say anything," adding, "If this happens, the number of proportional seats can increase from 10 to more than 15, so our proposal was to proceed this way, but it was not accepted."

She continued, "I have continuously advocated for this, but it did not gain much resonance. Especially, I heard that many Korea Party lawmakers strongly opposed it," and added, "If we proceed this way, it has both justification and practical benefits, so (when merger talks become serious) I hope we can discuss this."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.