Lee Jae-myung: "The Unified Government Must Be Distinguished from a Coalition Government"... Drawing the Line on Coalition Government Theory

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jinyoung] Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, said on the 6th regarding the integrated government pledge and the possibility of a coalition government, "I would like to distinguish between a coalition government and an integrated government."

Lee made these remarks after attending a forum jointly hosted by the Korean Association for Public Administration, the Korean Association for Policy Studies, and JoongAng Ilbo at the Press Center in Jung-gu, Seoul, on the morning of the same day, where he met with reporters.

Lee said, "In a presidential system, I think it is problematic for the authority granted by the people to a certain individual to be arbitrarily divided due to political intentions," adding, "Although it may be inevitable, this is the principle."

He continued, "The authority given by the people to the president should not be exercised by others," and stated, "In fact, the Park Geun-hye administration's scandal (the Choi Soon-sil incident) emphasized the aspect that authority and responsibility must coincide."

Regarding the integrated government theory, he said, "If someone is a capable talent, regardless of their faction, if the policy is good, I believe we should not care about its origin," emphasizing, "Even if I form a cabinet, I will thoroughly adopt a practical approach and use excellent talents who contribute to the people, regardless of their faction as much as possible."

When asked if the additional payment of nationwide disaster relief funds would likely be excluded from the current supplementary budget (supplementary budget) discussions, he replied, "What can we do if that is the situation?" He added, "There are government and ruling and opposition party positions, as well as funding issues, so I think it is desirable for the government and the ruling and opposition parties to cooperate well and, if possible, provide broad and substantial support primarily to small business owners and self-employed people who have suffered the most."

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