Yoon Sang-hyun: "Democratic Party Local Leaders Distributing Local Currency... Vote-Buying for Early Presidential Election"

Yoon Sang-hyun Criticizes "Vote-Buying at the Expense of Future Generations... Hidden Agenda"

On the 27th, Yoon Sang-hyun, a member of the People Power Party, criticized some local government heads affiliated with the Democratic Party of Korea for distributing local currency ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday after the nationwide 250,000 won support fund proposed by Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung was scrapped, calling it a "political vote-buying act for local elections and an early presidential election."

On the same day, Yoon posted on his Facebook under the title "Democratic Party's Populism Disguised as Livelihood," stating, "Most of the local governments distributing local currency have a fiscal self-reliance rate of only 6-12%, meaning they are financially tight regions. Yet, these local government heads are using local currency under the name of livelihood support funds, relying on taxpayers' money as if it were their own petty cash," making this claim.

Yoon further pointed out, "The bigger problem is that such support funds can reduce important social overhead capital (SOC) projects or essential businesses in the region and may cause long-term financial deterioration of local governments," adding, "If the budget is used as a populist gesture, other major project budgets will be cut or the burden will fall back on local residents."

Regarding the nationwide 250,000 won support fund promoted by the Democratic Party, he criticized, "It costs 13 trillion won to distribute to all citizens. The Democratic Party requested about 1 trillion won in the budget for local currency this year, but the government rejected it," and added, "Then the Democratic Party is pushing for local currency through a supplementary budget of about 30 trillion won. To this end, the Democratic Party even reintroduced a bill to make the issuance of local currency mandatory with national support."

Yoon Sang-hyun, a member of the People Power Party, is attending a party meeting held at the National Assembly on the 16th. Photo by Kim Hyun-min

Yoon also urged, "Please look back at the cases of indiscriminate cash support initiated by the Democratic Party," claiming, "It has already been proven several times that it was populism disguised as livelihood support."

He said, "Ahead of the 2020 general election and the 2022 local elections, when COVID-19 was rampant, local governments rushed to provide emergency disaster relief funds. They spent taxpayers' money like a gratuity, effectively engaging in vote-buying," and criticized, "The Democratic Party seems to have a hidden agenda to engage in vote-buying again as a popularity stunt for the election, even if it means passing the debt onto future generations."

Furthermore, he emphasized, "For the Democratic Party, 'Meoksanism' seems to be nothing more than a slogan on banners. If they truly care about people's livelihoods, they should provide substantial help to those in urgent need through thick and meticulous selective support, not populist policies," adding, "Taxpayers' money should not be used to hunt votes ahead of elections. What is needed now is not populist policies but effective livelihood measures."

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