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South Korea’s Opposition to Force Through Budget in a Power Play
(Bloomberg) — South Korean opposition leader Lee Jae-myung sought to force through a highly contested budget Tuesday in a show of political clout as he seeks to build momentum for another impeachment bid against President Yoon Suk Yeol in the coming days.
“A swift passage of the budget bill will help ease the current anxiety and overcome the crisis,” Lee said at a meeting with members of his Democratic Party on Tuesday.
The main opposition party’s one-sided downsizing of the budget by 4.1 trillion won ($2.9 billion) was among the factors cited by Yoon when he made his shock declaration of martial law last week. The DP’s revamped budget cuts back funding to Yoon’s office, prosecutors and the police earmarked in the ruling party’s earlier proposal.
Passing the budget would serve as reminder that the DP has control of parliament as it tussles with the ruling People Power Party over how to shape the nation’s administration going forward with Yoon’s days as president looking numbered.
The opposition is hoping to topple Yoon and trigger an early election while the PPP is trying to place the prime minister at the center of political control and delay an election it may fare badly in.
As the political chaos rumbled on, markets started to stablize close to a week since Yoon’s surprise move. The Kospi benchmark stock index was up 2.2% for its first gains since the crisis broke out. The won was up around 0.1% against the dollar at 1429.25 having last week hit its lowest level against the greenback since 2009 in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.
The PPP is due to flesh out its plans for running the administration before the next impeachment vote, according to Yonhap News, a move that would be aimed at reassuring policymakers and voters that it has a plan going forward.
But in a sign that the opposition is edging closer to the 200 votes it would need to impeach Yoon in a possible vote this coming Saturday, Cho Kyoung-tae and Kim Sang-wook, two members of the PPP hinted Tuesday that they would support the motion this time round if Yoon doesn’t step down first.
Kim was one of three ruling party lawmakers who voted on Yoon’s impeachment motion last Saturday. At that time he voted against the motion.
“I demand the president’s apology and his immediate stepping down,” Kim said. “I also urge our ruling party to seriously acknowledge the wrongdoing and cooperate on the president’s impeachment.”