Hong Jun-pyo "Fortunately, the Opponent is Criminal Lee Jae-myung" Officially Declares Presidential Candidacy?

Expresses Intention to Run in Next Presidential Election
"I Am an Outsider of the Conservative Forces"

Hong Jun-pyo, Mayor of Daegu, said, in response to the increased possibility of an early presidential election following the passage of the impeachment motion against President Yoon Seok-yeol, "One fortunate thing is that the conservative forces on this land are still strong, and the (presidential) opponent is the criminal and rioter, Representative Lee Jae-myung." This is interpreted as him making his candidacy for the next presidential election a foregone conclusion.

Hong Joon-pyo, Mayor of Daegu, Yonhap News

On the 21st, Mayor Hong recalled the previous presidential election on Facebook, writing, "There was a prediction that if Lee Jae-myung became (president), the country would collapse, and if Yoon Seok-yeol became president, the country would fall into chaos." He explained the background of his decision to run for mayor of Daegu after the 2021 People Power Party presidential primary, saying, "If I stayed in central politics, I would not be able to avoid joint responsibility for the regime's failure, and it would be impossible to recreate a conservative government, so I decided to go down (to Daegu)."

Mayor Hong referred to the case of former President Park Geun-hye, who was a leading figure during the Lee Myung-bak administration, saying, "It is always difficult to recreate a regime unless you differentiate yourself from the previous administration," and added, "I judged that supporting and encouraging the weak Yoon administration would prevent it from deteriorating further."

He also said, "I thought the time to differentiate from the Yoon administration would be from the fourth year, but it came too early." Nevertheless, he wrote, "One fortunate thing is that the conservative forces on this land are still strong, and the opponent is the criminal and rioter, Representative Lee Jae-myung."

Mayor Hong also expressed his intention to challenge for the next presidency the day before. Calling himself an outsider of the conservative forces, he said, "Only outsiders can break the vested interests of Korean society and create a truly advanced nation era."

An outsider refers to a person who acts independently with their own ideas, outside the established social framework. He also emphasized, "Reagan and Thatcher were outsiders of conservative parties, and even Trump was an outsider of the conservative party, so why did they become leaders?"