Departing Shim Jae-cheol Criticizes "Hwang Leadership Vacuum Also a Factor in General Election Defeat"

Impact of Populism, Party Nomination Failures, and Offensive Remarks on Defeat

Sim Jae-cheol, floor leader of the United Future Party, is holding his final press conference of his term on the 7th. The United Future Party is scheduled to elect a new floor leader on the 8th. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporters Kim Hyemin and Im Chunhan] Shim Jae-cheol, floor leader of the United Future Party whose term ends on the 8th, cited former leader Hwang Kyo-ahn's lack of leadership as one of the reasons for the party's defeat in the general election.

On the morning of the 7th, Shim held a press conference at the National Assembly and shared his final reflections on the five months he served as floor leader, pointing to former leader Hwang's leadership issues as a cause of the election loss. He criticized, "The absence of leadership from former leader Hwang also influenced the defeat in the general election," adding, "It is a fact confirmed by post-election polls that the party's representative face failed to inspire public trust." This is the first time the United Future Party leadership has publicly mentioned that the election failure was due to former leader Hwang's lack of leadership.

As the co-chairman of the joint election countermeasures committee for the April 15 general election, he said, "As a member of the party leadership, I deeply feel a great responsibility for the election defeat," but he attributed the causes of the defeat to the ruling party's populism, the party's candidate nomination failures, and former leader Hwang's leadership.

Shim said, "While we had shortcomings related to the election, the biggest influence was the government's and ruling party's vote-buying cash handouts," sharpening his criticism. "Two days before the election, they distributed 400,000 won per child allowance and promised 1 million won in support funds for COVID-19. This kind of vote-buying helicopter cash drop greatly swayed voter sentiment."

He targeted the candidate nomination committee, saying, "The party's candidate nominations also failed. Instead of nominating to win, they wrongly nominated as if changing candidates unconditionally was the solution." He added, "They exposed the failure of nominations by placing young candidates without survival ability in unsuitable regions." Shim also evaluated that "the reckless remarks of candidates Kim Dae-ho and Cha Myung-jin also had an impact."

He openly criticized former leader Hwang's lack of leadership. Shim said, "It was confirmed by post-election polls that the faces representing the party failed to gain the public's trust," adding, "While the candidate nomination committee bears responsibility for the flawed nominations, the party leader who leads the party cannot be exempt from responsibility." He continued, "The party leader should have played a role in correcting this, but it did not work well. I think the public viewed this as a shortcoming."

He said, "Due to these factors, we suffered a crushing defeat in the election, resulting in a supermajority ruling party holding 180 seats for the next four years," adding, "Populism showed its power again this time and will continue to do so. I worry that official populism under the name of policy and system will run rampant before every election."

Shim advised the next floor leader, saying, "Negotiating with principles and flexibility is easy to say but will be extremely tough in reality," and added, "Since the next floor leader also carries the heavy responsibility of rebuilding the party, they must endure painful sacrifices to resolve these issues." He emphasized, "Everyone should approach this with a spirit of putting the party before personal interests. The most fundamental prerequisite for empowering the floor leader's negotiations is party unity."

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