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Rival parties are gearing up for a full-fledged battle for the next National Assembly, regrouping after spending more than a week in intense legislative deadlock brought about by the oppositions’ record-breaking filibuster.
While the main opposition The Minjoo Party of Korea seeks to use the filibuster as political leverage, the ruling Saenuri Party is set on putting the blame for the legislative lull on its rival.
The Saenuri Party accused the opposition of derailing the passage of business legislation that did not make it to the last plenary session.
The fate of the bills, such as those on relaxing regulations in the service industry and overhauling the labor market, look dim as the 19th Assembly will spend its final days boosting the incumbents’ re-election bid instead of arranging more plenary sessions. The current session ends on March 10.
The Minjoo Party, discouraged by the Wednesday passage of the antiterrorism bill but boosted by the consolidated support from the filibuster, vowed to turn up its election campaign mode.
“Now is time to translate the filibuster energy into an opposition alliance,” said Minjoo Party whip Rep. Lee Jong-kul. The last filibusterer described the marathon speech as an opportunity to “unite against the Park Geun-hye administration.”
Throughout the 192-hour speeches, some lawmakers from the minor Justice Party and the Peoples’ Party joined the marathon speech led by the main opposition, criticizing the government-backed counter-terrorism bill.
The floor leader’s remark came a day after the party’s interim leader Kim Jong-in suggested that the opposition parties should merge into a single party ahead of the general election to prevent the Saenuri Party from seizing majority in the Assembly.
The interim leader’s proposal roiled the opposition bloc, particularly the People’s Party which has been struggling to boost its stagnant popularity despite its pledge to create a new political force. Opinion polls suggest that the newly-built party’s supporting rate is far below that of the two mainstream parties.
On Thursday, Kim slammed People’s Party founder Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo, who shunned his coalition idea a day ago. The 75-year-old politician charged that the former presidential candidate opposed the offer because he is “still obsessed with the idea of him becoming the next president.”
Ahn again on Thursday derided Kim’s remark as a “cowardly political gimmick” to deflect the voters’ attention from the legislative impasse and sabotage his party before the elections. But other key members argued that Ahn should give more thought to the offer.
“We need to have a serious discussion (about the offer),” said the People’s Party co-chairman Rep. Chun Jung-bae.
Rep. Park Jie-won, a liberal bigwig who joined the party on Wednesday, went further to embrace the offer by saying that “the opposition needs to build a coalition.”
The Saenuri Party, for its part, derided the coalition move as a political stunt repeated among liberal parties. It instead rushed to devise its own strategy for the election. The conservative party has publicly announced that it will win more than 180 seats.
Some key members of the leadership, most of those within the faction close to President Park, urged its leader Rep. Kim Moo-sung to allow the party to “strategically” nominate what it considers to be a proven candidate for the elections.
“Under any circumstances, we need to build our own principle and power to compete with other parties. For that to happen, we have to fill the party’s candidate list with those who are deemed competitive by voters’ standard,” said Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun of the Saenuri Party.
By Yeo Jun-suk (jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)
