Choo Kyung-ho "Undermining Judicial Order... Party Stance Set as Rejection"
Han Dong-hoon "Need Solutions Matching Public Expectations, but Opposition's Overreach"
On the 4th, the National Assembly held a plenary session to re-vote on three bills, including the Ssang Special Prosecutor Law (Special Prosecutor Law for Kim Geon-hee and Chae Sang-byeong) and the Regional Currency Act (Act on the Promotion of Local Love Gift Certificates), on which President Yoon Seok-yeol exercised his veto power. The People Power Party decided as a party line to reject these three bills. They plan to prevent any dissenting votes in response to the opposition's offensive.
At 10 a.m. on the same day, at a People Power Party members' meeting held at the National Assembly, Party Floor Leader Choo Kyung-ho urged members to cast rejection votes, saying, "Our fight against the opposition's outrage is to uphold the Constitution and protect the country." Han Dong-hoon, the People Power Party leader who is not a member of the National Assembly, also attended the meeting. Earlier, the opposition parties, including the Democratic Party, forcibly passed the bills at the plenary session on the 19th of last month, and President Yoon exercised his veto power on these bills on the 2nd. For the bills returned to the National Assembly due to the president's veto to be passed again in the plenary session, at least eight dissenting votes must come from the People Power Party.
The ruling party leadership regards these bills as political disputes and as shields for Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung, insisting that the Special Prosecutor Laws must be rejected. They argue that through these two Special Prosecutor Laws, the opposition intends to push the country into an impeachment crisis against President Yoon and neutralize Lee’s judicial risks. Floor Leader Choo mentioned recent pro-opposition groups holding impeachment rallies against President Yoon and referred to Lee’s trial situation, stating, "As the first trial verdict for Lee approaches, the frequency and intensity of the Democratic Party’s legislative rampage are increasing," and added, "We have decided to reject the bills as a party line." Regarding the Regional Currency Act, he also pointed out that "the opposition is dividing the government’s budgetary authority and infringing on the autonomous decision-making power of local governments."
Han Dong-hoon, who has demanded an apology from Kim Geon-hee regarding the third-party Chae Sang-byeong Special Prosecutor Law, also clearly stated his opposition to the Special Prosecutor Laws pushed by the opposition. Han criticized, "The Democratic Party’s Special Prosecutor bills allow them to arbitrarily select special prosecutors and exercise unchecked authority at their discretion." The People Power Party plans to hold another members' meeting at 1:30 p.m., just before the plenary session at 2 p.m. when the vote will take place, to reaffirm unity.
In political circles, it is expected that there will not be many dissenting votes within the ruling party. However, even if dissenting votes are minimized in this re-vote, concerns remain about what comes next. The Democratic Party plans to reintroduce the bills even if they are rejected and discarded this time, while President Yoon and the ruling party’s approval ratings continue to decline due to the Kim Geon-hee issue.
In fact, voices within the ruling party calling for Kim Geon-hee to apologize are growing, considering public opinion. In an interview with CBS the day before, Representative Kim Jae-seop criticized, "Just because she received a non-prosecution disposition, it is a misconception to think, 'We have finally been cleared of all charges and are now a party without any suspicion,'" and said, "(Kim Geon-hee) should neither apologize nor accept the Special Prosecutor Law, and to just continue as is sounds to me like fighting against the people."
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