By Kim Hyo-jin
A possible collaboration between the People’s Party and the Bareun Party, the second- and third-largest opposition parties, is emerging as a hot-button issue in the post-election political landscape.
Rep. Joo Seung-yong, floor leader of the People’s Party, first spoke of the possibility of a deal between the parties, Friday. “We need to consider a possible collaboration with the Bareun Party to strengthen our voices in the National Assembly,” he said during a party meeting.
Rep. Joo Ho-young, floor leader of the Bareun Party, also visited his People’s Party counterpart. Joo Ho-young told reporters after their closed-door meeting that Joo Seung-yong’s proposal was convincing as it was based on growing support from multiple People’s Party members, not just his personal opinion.
He also left open the possibility of a deal, saying “the talks can gain further momentum after a new leadership is launched in both parties.”
This is viewed as a preemptive action by the minor parties to survive a potential political realignment following the defeat of the presidential election, according to political commentators.
The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) is now wooing the People’s Party to team up in the Assembly. President Moon Jae-in also stressed they have the same roots in his meeting with its former leader Park Jie-won.
The ruling party’s priority task is winning support from the 40-seat People’s Party as it has no power to pass a bill unilaterally with its 120 seats, which falls short of a majority in the 299-member Assembly.
Meanwhile, the People’s Party leadership is facing the risk of first-term lawmakers defecting to the DPK.
According to party officials, the political newcomers who are not so against establishment politics, or Moon’s associates in the DPK, are mulling over changing their party membership.
The possibility of their breakaway is getting higher after its presidential candidate failed to garner the expected amount of votes in the party’s support base of the Jeolla Provinces, which dimmed the prospects of the party winning local elections next year.
The situation is not so different in the Bareun Party. The Liberty Korea Party (LKP) has reached out to the minor party, calling for the need of a “conservative merger” since the election. It recently reinstated the membership of 13 defectors from the Bareun Party, growing to 107 seats.
Its former presidential candidate Hong Joon-pyo, who is expected to run for the party’s leadership, has courted Bareun Party members, saying, “We wish more of you would come back and rejoin us.”
Despite the need to strengthen parliamentary leverage, some lawmakers, however, remain skeptical of a possible merger between the two, considering their conflicting policy lines.
“The people will not support such an artificial merger when both parties have not yet narrowed the gap on North Korea policies, not to mention it is an unlikely scenario,” said Rep. Park Joo-sun, deputy National Assembly speaker, originally from the People’s Party.
Rep. Choung Byoung-gug, ex-Bareun Party chairman, said, “There is a firm consensus in the party on pursing value of the reformative conservatives independently.”
But there still is a speculation that the two minor parties can move to forming a policy-based coalition.
Their combined 60 seats act as a casting vote in dealing with contentious bills over which the ruling and the largest opposition party remain poles apart.
A bill with contested issues can only be sent to a plenary session for a vote with the approval of more than 60 percent of the sitting lawmakers, or 180 seats. Neither of the two largest parties’ number of seats meets the requirements.