Laughing Lee Nak-yeon at 'Sudden Death', Stern Lee Jun-seok at 'Silent Nomination'

New Future Struggles to Recruit Defectors from the Democratic Party
Reform New Party Faces Challenges as Lee Jun-seok's Leadership Shows Cracks

The third-zone parties split into Saeroun Mirae and the Reform New Party are showing mixed fortunes regarding the candidate nominations by the two major parties. The so-called 'Bimyeong (Non-Myeong) sudden death' nominations by the Democratic Party could work as a boon for Saeroun Mirae, which advocates itself as the 'real Democratic Party,' in recruiting personnel. On the other hand, the relatively less controversial candidate nominations by the People Power Party are pointed out as a new variable that could lead to anti-Yoon (anti-Yoon Seok-yeol) consolidation within Lee Jun-seok's Reform New Party.

As of the 22nd, the bottom 10-20% of incumbent lawmakers publicly revealed in the Democratic Party's nominations include six members: Kim Young-joo, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly; Park Yong-jin; Yoon Young-chan; Song Gap-seok; Park Young-soon; and Kim Han-jung. Most of them are from the Bimyeong (Non-Lee Jae-myung) faction, including Deputy Speaker Kim Young-joo, who is considered the leader of the Jeong Se-gyun faction.

If the disqualification of Bimyeong faction members continues in the Democratic Party's nomination screening, it is expected that many could join Saeroun Mirae centered around leader Lee Nak-yeon. This scenario suggests that among the three major forces supporting the Democratic Party?Pro-Lee Jae-myung, Pro-Moon Jae-in, and Honam?the Pro-Moon faction could consolidate power together with Saeroun Mirae. From the perspective of leader Lee Nak-yeon, who lost the last presidential election partly due to declining public sentiment in his hometown Honam, recruiting Pro-Moon lawmakers could become a new support base.

Withdrawal of Reform New Party Merger
(Seoul=Yonhap News) Reporters Han Sang-gyun and Shin Jun-hee = Lee Nak-yeon, co-representative of the Reform New Party, declared the withdrawal of the merger on the 20th.
On the left is co-representative Lee Nak-yeon holding a press conference to withdraw the merger at the New Future Party headquarters in Yeouido on the same day, and on the right is co-representative Lee Jun-seok holding a press conference at the National Assembly one hour later. 2024.2.20
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The Saeroun Mirae leadership is also openly exploring the recruitment of personnel from within the Democratic Party. Kim Jong-min, the responsible committee member of Saeroun Mirae, is reported to have recently met with Hong Young-pyo, who is considered the leader of the Pro-Moon faction in the Democratic Party. In political circles, it is widely believed that Hong is also included in the bottom 20% list of the Democratic Party. Lawmakers Yoon Young-chan and Kim Han-jung are also representative Pro-Moon figures. They are also sending love calls to Seol Hoon of the Donggyodong faction. If these forces consolidate under Saeroun Mirae, they could aim for candidate number 3 in the general election. A Saeroun Mirae official said, "We empathize with the Democratic Party's nomination turmoil," adding, "Leader Lee Nak-yeon and the leadership will watch the situation and continue dialogues with them."

On the other hand, within the Reform New Party, the silent nominations by the People Power Party have emerged as a variable. Originally, the Reform New Party had expected the anti-Yoon faction to consolidate due to the 'Yoonism (President Yoon Seok-yeol's intention) versus Hansim (Han Dong-hoon’s intention) showdown,' but this could act as a setback for their expansion. This is because the number of defections within the party due to the nomination results could decrease accordingly. This is why leader Lee Jun-seok has criticized the ruling party's nomination results as a 'cohabitation with deep-rooted evils.'

Recently, the failure to merge with Saeroun Mirae has also cracked Lee Jun-seok's leadership, and it is expected to take time to restore trust. There are even suspicions that they merely received the 60 million won regular subsidy after filling the number of lawmakers and then 'ran away.' The Reform New Party has promised to return and freeze the subsidy to manage the situation, but the controversy continues.

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