Sangmin Lee: "Decide rejection as party policy? The party will be in chaos"

"Promise to Waive Immunity Broken?"
"Woo Won-sik Distorts and Misleads the Essence"

Regarding the claim made at the Democratic Party lawmakers' workshop coinciding with Lee Jae-myung's first anniversary as leader of the Democratic Party that "the party should decide as its official stance to reject the arrest consent motion," Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Sang-min opposed it, saying "the party will be in ruins."

On the 29th, Lee said on CBS's 'Kim Hyun-jung's News Show' and SBS's 'Kim Tae-hyun's Political Show', "We have already promised to give up the privilege of non-arrest, so if we try to reverse that as the party's official stance, does that make any sense?"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

As factional conflicts within the party escalate over the arrest consent motion against Leader Lee, at the one-night, two-day Democratic Party workshop held the previous day, a first-term lawmaker argued that the party should officially reject the arrest consent motion against Lee. The lawmaker said, "It's a bit embarrassing to ask the lawmakers for their opinions on this, so the idea is to have party members vote to make it the party's official stance, but that is a pointless discussion," adding, "Keeping one's word once spoken is the most basic thing."

Earlier, Lee had claimed that "Leader Lee must step down to prevent a party split," to which fellow party member Woo Won-shik responded, "Stop playing word games." Lee said, "I'm not joking; I spoke about being prepared for an amicable separation and that if Leader Lee does not make a decision, other lawmakers within the party might decide. If you call that wordplay, you are distorting and misleading the essence," adding, "Just because it's uncomfortable and you try to ignore or avoid it doesn't mean that the reality ceases to exist."

Regarding Leader Lee's statement in an interview with Daejeon Broadcasting that "I became party leader with an overwhelming 78% support, and that support is not only maintained but strengthened," Lee said, "That may be true within the party," but questioned, "Ultimately, political forces must gain support and trust from public sentiment, right? What meaning is there in just raising our voices among ourselves?"

This is what is called the "Lee Jae-myung paradox," where support is strong within the party but expansion outside the party is limited. Lee pointed out, "Leader Lee currently faces various negative perceptions from the public, and if you look at opinion polls, his unfavorable rating far exceeds 60%," adding, "Despite the failures of the Yoon Seok-youl government and the People Power Party, the Democratic Party has not gained any political advantage reflexively but is instead falling together, and in some polls, it even has lower support than the People Power Party."

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