35 lawmakers will quit ruling party next week
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Former Saenuri Party floor leader Rep. Yoo Seong-min, left, and former party leader Rep. Kim Moo-sung, second from left, leave a press conference at the National Assembly with fellow Saenuri lawmakers, Wednesday. Thirty-four lawmakers aligned against President Park Geun-hye announced they will leave the party Dec. 27. / Yonhap
More expected to quit ruling party
By Kim Hyo-jin
Thirty-five Saenuri Party lawmakers declared Wednesday they will leave the party Dec. 27, after criticizing the party’s Assemblymen loyal to President Park Geun-hye.
They will establish a new conservative party, which will usher in a four-party system for the first time in 26 years. The group said more ruling party lawmakers are considering joining them.
The move will see the number of Saenuri Party lawmakers fall from 128 to 93, and make it the second largest party in the National Assembly behind the 121-member main opposition Democratic Party of Korea.
The division of the ruling party is expected to reshape the 2017 presidential race as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to declare his bid next month after completing his U.N. term.
“I tried to seek a reform and a revolution of the conservative bloc in the Saenuri Party but I have reached the conclusion that the goal is impossible,” Rep. Yoo Seong-min, a former party floor leader, told reporters after a meeting of the anti-Park lawmakers.
“To establish a proud and reliable conservative party, we decided to leave.”
Thirty-three lawmakers met earlier in the day to formulate the plan to quit the party next week.
Their move came after Park loyalists refused to accept Yoo as an interim leader of the party.
The rival factions have been at loggerheads over party hegemony and how to renew the party in the fallout of the corruption scandal involving the President.
The anti-Park faction called on the pro-Park lawmakers to step aside from frontline party politics to take responsibility for their support for her failed government.
It earlier proposed that Yoo should head an emergency planning committee, the party’s interim leadership, and be given full authority for reform measures.
However, Rep. Chung Woo-taik, a newly-appointed pro-Park floor leader, refused the proposal, citing the possibility of worsening factional conflict under Yoo’s leadership.
“It was confirmed that 35 lawmakers have decided to leave the party, including 31 of 33 participants of the meeting earlier today,” Rep. Hwang Young-cheul, a spokesman for the anti-Park group, said during a press conference.
“We decide to act on the 27th so we can have time to persuade more fellow lawmakers to join us.”
Won Hee-ryong, the governor of Jeju, will also leave the party, he added.
Of the 35 lawmakers, the majority represent constituencies in Seoul and its surrounding area while only three are from Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province, the Saenuri Party’s home turf.
Rep. Kim Hyun-ah, a lawmaker elected through the proportional representation system, also joined. She has to gain approval from the Saenuri Party before leaving so as not to lose her parliamentary seat.
Ten to 15 are followers of Rep. Kim Moo-sung, the ex-party leader, and 10 support Yoo.
The two bigwigs have led the anti-Park faction in the wake of the corruption scandal. The faction, consisting of 40 lawmakers, was key to the passage of the impeachment motion against Park on Dec. 9.
Party officials hinted at a possibility that the number of lawmakers could increase before the official announcement of their leaving the party.
The number is already enough to meet the minimum number — 20 — needed to form a negotiating bloc in the Assembly.
If the number exceeds 38, the group will be the third largest party, ahead of the minor opposition People’s Party.
They may realign the existing political structure by allying with members of the opposition.
“We will clear out hegemony politics wielded by the pro-Park or pro-Moon Jae-in forces, and will create a genuine conservative force that will lead new politics,” Hwang said.
Park loyalists condemned their move, calling the dissenters “betrayers.”
“It’s a betrayal of Saenuri Party supporters,” Cho Won-jin, a pro-Park lawmaker, said, dismissing them as a group of losers who failed to secure the party’s leadership posts.
Floor leader Chung said, “It’s a shame that they made a decision unilaterally while I sought to avoid division, and especially that Yoo did not communicate with me at all.”