By Kim Hyo-jin
Senior members of the ruling Saenuri Party will hold a meeting today to seek a solution to the ongoing internal power struggle that has paralyzed the party, floor leader Chung Jin-suk said Thursday.
Chung said he will gather opinions on how to form the emergency planning and reform committees that will play crucial roles in uniting the party after its poor performance in the general election last month.
The ruling party was thrown into turmoil after loyalists to President Geun-hye refused to attend a meeting designed to approve Chung’s nominations for the committees, as the floor leader excluded them.
Rep. Kim Moo-sung, the party’s ex-chairman, and Reps. Choi Kyung-hwan and Suh Chung-won, who lead the pro-Park faction, are unlikely to participate in today’s meeting, according to officials.
The meeting comes amid concerns that the party could break up due to the widening chasm between the Park loyalists and other lawmakers.
The loyalists expressed their discontent with Chung’s exclusion of lawmakers supporting the President and what they view as an attempt to give full authority to the reform committee in renovating the party.
Their collective affront to Chung pushed the party into chaos, as lawmakers not affiliated with the President backed the floor leader, arguing that he should push ahead with his plan to reform the party.
In the wake of the factional clash that could possibly lead to a breakup of the party, some political bigwigs started making moves to court potential defectors.
Ahn Cheol-soo, the co-chairman of the minority opposition People’s Party, expressed his willingness to expand the party’s ideological spectrum, implying he’d welcome ruling party lawmakers not affiliated with Park.
“We are opening the door to those rational and conservative figures from the Saenuri Party,” he told reporters, Wednesday, during his participation in a ceremony to commemorate the 1980 pro-democracy movement in Gwangju.
National Assembly Speaker Chung Ui-hwa of the Saenuri Party indicated his plan to launch a new centrist party later this year. He has gained much attention while preparing to launch a think tank, tentatively called “Vision for New Korea” which was viewed as a political association.
“I’m going to think about ways to achieve my goal, regardless of the current political landscape, by October this year,” Chung said.
Some watchers raised the possibility of politics being restructured with a new center-right third force being created compromised of pro-Park lawmakers from the Saenuri Party and Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK) Assemblymen affiliated with ex-Chairman Moon Jae-in.
Sohn Hak-gyu, a former adviser to the MPK, fueled this speculation when he said he will step up “remaking the current political landscape.”
After retiring from politics, the veteran politician had stayed in Gangjin, South Jeolla Province despite calls to take a leading role in the opposition bloc. Expectations are now high that he will announce his comeback to the political arena in July.
Some, however, remain skeptical of any immediate changes due to a lack of momentum among lawmakers not aligned with Park.
“An incredible amount of energy is needed to split the ruling party,” said Hwang Tae-soon, a senior analyst at the Wisdom Center. “It seems no one has enough power to pull fellow lawmakers out of the party at the moment.”
He added: “Having said that, the move can be facilitated with the 2017 presidential race approaching.”