Oh Se-hoon: "Has the Democratic Party Given Up on 'Democracy'?"

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon Posts on Facebook on the 24th After US and Canada Trip, Criticizing Democratic Party's Internal Purge Movements Following Impeachment Attempt Against Leader Lee Jae-myung, Questioning if the Democratic Party Has Abandoned 'Democracy' for 'Ambition'

Mayor Oh Se-hoon directly criticized the Democratic Party on the 24th, the day after returning from a business trip to the United States and Canada.

Mayor Oh posted on his Facebook, titled “Is the Democratic Party a 'barbaric' party that has abandoned 'democracy'?” and criticized, “Within the Democratic Party, scenes such as ‘rooting out traitors’ and ‘publicizing votes’?which would only befit a communist regime?are unfolding.”

He said that what is happening in the Democratic Party under Representative Lee Jae-myung is not simply a matter of party rivalry or factional conflict, but that the country’s liberal democracy is fundamentally threatened.

He explained that rooting out dissent directly denies the spirit of liberal democracy, which recognizes diverse political views and expressions. Given that Representative Lee Jae-myung is embroiled in numerous allegations of power-related corruption and is subject to judicial judgment, this is only natural under the principle of ‘equality before the law,’ yet the rooting out denies even this.

He also criticized some Democratic Party lawmakers who certified or disclosed votes against certain motions, saying it recalls the terror politics of the Red Guard era and seems to prioritize Representative Lee Jae-myung over the principles of liberal democracy.

Mayor Oh lamented, “Having just returned from a business trip to the United States and Canada yesterday, I felt once again that even those advanced countries are desperately striving to change, so what is our politics doing?”

He also said that about ten years ago, during the free school meals referendum, when defeat seemed imminent, the Democratic Party incited people not to go to the polls by calling it a bad vote, effectively turning the first policy referendum in history into a public vote, causing the turnout to fall short and preventing the referendum from being held.

This was a barbaric act that openly violated the constitutional principle of secret ballots, and he criticized that even after ten years, nothing has changed.

Finally, Mayor Oh concluded, “Only when Korean politics breaks away from such anti-democratic barbarism can it enter the path of normal politics that truly cares for the people’s livelihood.”

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