"If People Only Seek Their Own Interests, Things Get Harder"
Next Year's General Election: Presidential Office Aides Face Drafting Moves
As it is reported that many aides from the Yongsan Presidential Office will run in next year's general election, tensions within the ruling party are rising. In this context, Hong Joon-pyo, the mayor of Daegu, delivered a negative message regarding the aides' candidacies.
On the 24th, Mayor Hong posted on Facebook, stating, "When there are many people who share the fate of the regime, that regime succeeds. But when people who use the regime only to seek their own survival dominate, the regime becomes weak and troubled."
Mayor Hong explained, "This has been the case with any regime," adding, "During progressive left-wing regimes, the forces protecting the regime were abundant." However, he pointed out, "During conservative right-wing regimes, there were more people prioritizing their own ambitions than protecting the regime, so from the mid-term of the regime, they always struggled," and criticized, "When former President Park Geun-hye was impeached, weren't the people who got elected as lawmakers with her photo the first to betray her?"
He continued, "When former President Lee Myung-bak was imprisoned, who stood up to call out the injustice? Everyone remained silent," adding, "That was the current state of the conservative right-wing. We will have to see what happens from next year."
Within the ruling party, rumors persist that many aides from the Presidential Office will run in next year's general election. Recently, it was reported that the People Power Party requested the Presidential Office to dispatch aides for the next general election. Many in the political sphere expect that the movement of Presidential Office aides running for election will intensify starting early next month, after the Chuseok holiday.
Among the senior aides of the Presidential Office, it is anticipated that Lee Jin-bok, Senior Secretary for Political Affairs; Kang Seung-gyu, Senior Secretary for Civil Society; and Kim Eun-hye, Senior Secretary for Public Relations, will be dispatched for next year's general election. According to some media reports, aside from the senior secretaries, about 30 administrative officers have expressed their intention to run, as confirmed through an internal survey conducted by the Presidential Office.
The People Power Party remained tight-lipped about the dispatch rumors of Presidential Office aides. On the 22nd, after a meeting with businesspeople in Daegu, party leader Kim Ki-hyun responded to reporters' questions by saying, "What does 'Yongsan dispatch' mean?" and "I don't really understand the concept of that term."
He added, "Any citizen of the Republic of Korea who has the right to vote and be elected can run for office," emphasizing, "It doesn't matter whether the person comes from Yongsan, Daegu, or Gwangju; everyone has the right to be judged by the voters."
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