President Lee: "We Cannot Unilaterally Push Ahead with the Chungnam?Daejeon Integration"

President Lee's Message on Social Media
"Opposition Party and Chungnam City and Provincial Council Oppose Chungnam?Daejeon Integration"... "Hope There Is No Misunderstanding"
"The Government's Position Is Not to Overreach by Pressing Ahead Against Opposition from the Opposition Party and the City and Provincial Councils"

On the 24th, President Lee Jaemyung commented on the proposed administrative consolidation of Daejeon and South Chungcheong Province (Chungnam), saying, "We cannot unilaterally push ahead with the integration of a metropolitan administrative district with a thousand years of history without sufficient public consensus," and adding, "The government's position has been that we should not overreach by pressing ahead against the opposition of the opposition party and the city and provincial councils." The special act on the administrative consolidation of Chungnam and Daejeon and the special act on the administrative consolidation of Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province (Gyeongbuk) failed to pass the Legislation and Judiciary Committee of the National Assembly on this day.

Yonhap News

In a post uploaded to X (formerly Twitter) the same day, President Lee wrote, "In Chungnam and Daejeon, the opposition party and the Chungnam city and provincial council are opposing the consolidation. Even if it is not 100%, at a minimum the residents of the region as a whole must broadly agree, and the political community must also largely consent, for consolidation to be possible," expressing this view. He then added, "I hope there will be no misunderstanding." President Lee attached a news report suggesting that the presidential office is displeased with the Democratic Party of Korea over the fact that the special acts on the administrative consolidation of Daegu-Gyeongbuk and Chungnam-Daejeon failed to pass the Legislation and Judiciary Committee of the National Assembly, effectively derailing the consolidation drive.

This message from President Lee came as the handling of the special acts on administrative consolidation was running into difficulties in the National Assembly. Among the bills related to the integration of metropolitan local governments, the Legislation and Judiciary Committee on this day approved the "Special Act on the Establishment of the Integrated Metropolitan City of South Jeolla Province (Jeonnam) and Gwangju," but put on hold the bills on the "Daejeon-Chungnam Integration" and the "Daegu-Gyeongbuk Integration."

During the deliberations at the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, clashes continued over local public opinion for and against the plans and over the procedures for gathering views. Committee Chair Choo Mi-ae, referring to the case of Daejeon and Chungnam, remarked to the effect that "the city and provincial councils first supported the plan and then reversed their positions," and floated "a plan to first integrate Jeonnam and Gwangju, where there is no opposition, and then proceed sequentially while monitoring any side effects."

Earlier, on the 19th, the Daejeon Metropolitan Council and the South Chungcheong Provincial Council each convened an extraordinary session and passed separate agenda items expressing "opposition" to the administrative consolidation. In the Daejeon council, where the People Power Party holds a majority, some Democratic Party lawmakers were absent, and the South Chungcheong council also adopted an opposing opinion through a vote.

The ruling and opposition parties exchanged blame. The Democratic Party argued, in effect, that "if the city and provincial councils or the mayors and governors are opposed, there is a burden in pushing ahead unilaterally," placing responsibility on the People Power Party, while the People Power Party countered that it was a "hasty push with insufficient procedures for gathering opinions, such as a resident referendum."

In political circles, there are also predictions that strong repercussions are inevitable following the deferral of the bills, given that the "Daejeon-Chungnam integration," which the president has personally shown a will to pursue, has been discussed together with the idea of electing a "unified head of the consolidated local government" before the upcoming local elections on June 3.