Democratic Party Forms Alliance Only with New Parties Within 2 Months of Birth... Steps Toward 'Satellite Parties'

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Cheol-eung] The Democratic Party of Korea has decided to form a proportional representation coalition exclusively with newly established parties created within the last two months. By drawing a line from existing extraparliamentary 'value-oriented' parties, this move appears to be effectively a step toward a satellite party led by the Democratic Party.

According to the Central Election Commission on the 18th, the party registration date for 'Sidae Jeonhwan' (Transition Era), which signed a proportional coalition agreement with the Democratic Party the previous day, was the 6th of this month; 'Gaja Environment Party' was registered on February 27, and the Basic Income Party on January 22. In the case of 'Gaja Peace and Human Rights Party,' it was registered on February 10 following the merger of the existing 'Human Rights Party' and the Peaceful Unification Party Preparatory Committee. The registration date for 'For the Citizens,' the platform promoting the coalition party, was the 16th.

These are some of the newly formed parties that have rapidly increased as the general election approaches. Among them, the 'Gaja Peace and Human Rights Party' was originally based on a party founded by families of victims forcibly mobilized during the Japanese colonial period. Upon merging this time, they completely revised their platform and established new 'National Assembly Member Duty Regulations' and 'Election Organization Regulations.' As a human rights party, they received 25,227 votes (0.1%) in the 2016 proportional representation election.

On the other hand, the Green Party was registered in 2012, the People's Party, which includes former members of the old Unified Progressive Party, was founded in 2017, and the Future Party, which claims to be a youth party, was also established in 2017. Although these parties have been active as representative value-oriented parties outside the National Assembly for a relatively long time, the Democratic Party has drawn a line.

Yoon Ho-jung, Secretary-General of the Democratic Party, said to reporters the previous day, "It is difficult to form a coalition with parties that cause unnecessary and wasteful debates on ideology or LGBTQ+ issues." This was interpreted as referring to the People's Party and the Green Party. The Green Party proposed election pledges for the 21st general election such as 'legalization of marriage equality (same-sex marriage)' and 'removal of gender indication from resident registration numbers.' In a statement, the Green Party criticized, "Perceiving LGBTQ+ issues as unnecessary and wasteful debates is itself a serious problem. Secretary-General Yoon Ho-jung's remarks are exclusionary and hateful toward LGBTQ+ people," and demanded an apology.

Instead of the 'Political Reform Coalition,' which includes many civil society figures, the Democratic Party first joined hands with 'For the Citizens,' which has a strong pro-Moon Jae-in faction, and formed a coalition framework mainly with newly established parties, making it difficult to avoid criticism of being a 'satellite party.' Secretary-General Yoon also mentioned, "The Political Reform Coalition is a platform party that represents civil society, so it seems to assert civil society's leadership more strongly than other parties."

The coalition's scope has been set very narrowly, diverging from the purpose of the semi-proportional representation electoral system aimed at expanding diversity in the National Assembly. It is highly likely that the Green Party, People's Party, and Future Party will not join the Democratic Party. A Political Reform Coalition official said, "There was a false slander (black propaganda) suggesting that the Political Reform Coalition was greedy and would field its own candidates, but ultimately it joined hands with another platform, revealing the Democratic Party-led intention," adding, "We will decide future policies after considering the positions of minority parties such as the Green Party."

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