The dust of the 2022 South Korean presidential election has settled. Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, lost to Yoon Seok-yue, the presidential candidate of the largest opposition party, the National Power Party., and missed the presidency.
According to Xinhua News Agency report, at about 6:00 local time on March 10 (5:00 Beijing time), South Korea’s Central Election Commission completed 100% vote counting for the presidential election. According to statistics, Yin Xiyue received 48.56% of the votes, followed by Lee Jae-ming with 47.83%.
Lee delivered a speech in the early morning of tomorrow morning admitting his defeat and congratulating Yin Xiyue on his victory. He expressed the hope that Yin Xiyue can start an era that transcends division and contradiction.
On March 10, 2022 local time, in Seoul, South Korea, Lee Jae-myung, candidate of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, admitted defeat. Picture/IC photo
In fact, this is Lee Jae-ming’s second presidential campaign. Five years ago, after the then South Korean President Park Geun-hye was impeached and removed, Lee Jae-myung competed with Moon Jae-in for the presidential candidate nomination within the Democratic Party, but ultimately lost to Moon Jae-in. Now, although he has entered the final round of the presidential election, he still lost.
From a worker to a lawyer, from the mayor of Seongnam City to the governor of Gyeonggi Province, Lee Jae-myung has experienced many ups and downs in his political career, but he can always find opportunities in the ups and downs. After losing two presidential elections, where will Lee Jae-myung go in the next five years?
Entering the political arena: From worker to mayor
On December 22, 1964, the Lee couple living in Andong City, North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea welcomed their fifth child and named him "Lee Jae-myung".
Li Zaiming's family was poor when he was young. After graduating from elementary school, his family had no money to continue his education, so he had to drop out of school and work in the Chengnan Industrial Park. It was the 1970s, and South Korea's economy was rapidly rising, driven by manufacturing. Li Zaiming also wanted to work in a factory to make a living, but because he was too young, he had to use a fake name and get through with other people's resumes.
An accident happened shortly after. Li Zaiming, who was only a teenager, suffered a work-related accident . His arm was caught by a machine, causing him to become disabled. However, Lee Jae-myung did not give up. Instead, he passed the -equivalent exam through self-study. In 1982, he received a scholarship and successfully entered the law department of Korea Central University. After graduation, he became a lawyer.
Li Zaiming, who originally planned to become a judge or prosecutor, may not have expected that his career was about to reach a critical turning point.
In 2004, two private hospitals in Seongnam City closed down. Worried about insufficient local medical resources, Li Zaiming signed a joint letter signed by more than 200,000 citizens, asking the government to build a public hospital in the area, but the proposal was rejected by the city council.
Later, Li Zaiming clashed with others during the protest and was charged with "obstructing the performance of special official duties." He had to hide in a narrow church basement to avoid arrest. "Chosun Ilbo" pointed out that it was this experience that made him determined to become the mayor of Seongnam City and establish the local medical system with his own hands.
However, participating in the campaign requires a significant investment. In an interview with People's Daily Online in 2012, Li Zaiming admitted that the election campaign at that time was "splashed" with money. It was not until the implementation of the “public electoral system” that South Korea realized elections that did not require huge expenditures. The change in the system also paved the way for Li Zaiming to enter politics. "Since a person only lives once, it is better to enter politics and gain more power to contribute more to society."
Li Zaiming's path to politics was not smooth sailing.
In 2006, Lee Jae-myung ran for mayor of Seongnam City, but was defeated in second place; in 2008, he ran for Congress, but ultimately lost. It was not until 2010 that Li Zaiming ran for mayor of Seongnam City again and was finally elected, and was re-elected in 2014.
First show of strength: Taking the lead in calling for Park Geun-hye's resignation
Lee Jae-myung, who had just become the mayor of Seongnam City, had not had time to "show off his talents" and had to live a life of "tightening his belt".
After Li Zaiming took office, he discovered that due to the excessive advance of financial funds by the previous government, all the disposable budget for 2-3 years of his first four-year term had been advanced. Therefore, Lee Jae-myung had to raise funds himself to fill the financial hole.
On March 8, 2022 local time, in Seoul, South Korea, the day before the South Korean general election, South Korean presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung held a campaign rally to canvass votes for the general election. Picture/IC photo
Seongnam City reduced fiscal expenditures, adjusted the fiscal structure, rectified taxes, and opened the city government building to citizens. It was not until 2013 that it finally paid off nearly 700 billion won in debt. Recalling his first year as mayor, Lee Jae-myung said in an interview with Korean media, "It felt like driving a nearly-sinked ship out of a storm."
After putting aside the pressure of debt, Li Zaiming launched many welfare policies, such as free school uniforms, public postpartum care centers, etc. "Chosun Ilbo" pointed out that Lee Jae-ming's welfare policy also has a lot of controversy, and some politicians and economists accuse him of " populism ".
During the process of repaying debts, Lee Jae-myung also had many disputes with the then South Korean President Park Geun-hye. Lee Jae-myung first announced that Seongnam City would postpone the repayment of central government debt, leading Park Geun-hye to set up a task force to investigate Lee Jae-myung.
Subsequently, Park Geun-hye proposed an enforcement order of the Local Finance Law, requiring Seongnam City to pay 100 billion won in taxes. This move made Lee Jae-myung extremely dissatisfied, and he even went on a hunger strike in front of Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul to protest.
The disputes between local governments and the central government are actually related to South Korea's political system. Dong Xiangrong, a researcher at the Institute of Asia-Pacific and Global Strategy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in an interview with the Beijing News reporter that South Korea’s administration is divided into multiple levels of local self-government groups, and the leaders of local elected groups need to be more responsible to the voters rather than to the The superior may be responsible to the President. Under this mechanism, it is inevitable that there will be policy differences between the central and local governments.
After the case of Park Geun-hye's "cronyes interfering in politics" occurred, Lee Jae-myung took the lead in expressing his support for the impeachment of Park Geun-hye, and also took to the streets to participate in candlelight demonstrations. Xinhua News Agency pointed out that Lee Jae-myung is regarded as the "first person" to ask Park Geun-hye to step down.
has been in charge of Seongnam City since 2010. He has been highly praised for promoting welfare projects. In addition, his outstanding performance in the "crony meddling in politics" case has made Lee Jae-myung break into the public eye as a "dark horse". On January 13, 2017, Lee Jae-myung deliberately returned to the watch factory where he had worked when he was 15 years old and issued a declaration to run for president of South Korea, "I will become the first worker-born president of the Republic of Korea."
However, Li Zaiming failed to realize this dream five years ago.
Two elections: an increasingly stable governance style
During his tenure as the mayor of Seongnam City, Lee Jae-myung was known for his direct speech and even extreme remarks. Therefore, he was called "Korean Trump " or "Soda Mayor" ” (Soda is often used to describe someone who is straightforward in Korean).
He once said in an interview that Americans "impeached" their establishment by electing Trump, and South Korea's election should also reflect this. Bloomberg pointed out that around November 2016, the largest protests occurred in South Korea since the 1980s. People were dissatisfied with the interest collusion between the political circles and big companies. Lee Jae-myung also drew on domestic anger over corruption and poor employment to a certain extent to gain public support.
On March 7, 2022 local time, in Busan, South Korea, Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the South Korean ruling party Common Democratic Party , held a campaign rally locally. Picture/IC photo
It is also worth noting that Li Zaiming was born in the grassroots. He advocated understanding the sufferings of the people and "speaking for the people."
In 2017, Lee Jae-myung and his wife participated in a Korean variety show. Through the show, he showed his daily life: he snores while sleeping, and he still has "difficulty getting up". He eats breakfast slowly while reading the newspaper, and his wife matches his clothes every day. Lee Jae-myung presented an image to the audience that was completely different from the "political elite" in public perception.
participated in the show just to break the audience's inherent perception of him. Lee Jae-ming said in the program that the public’s impression of politicians is that they are sharp, ruthless and careful. He wanted to show everyone that politicians are also ordinary people living next door. The funny life of the couple shown in the camera also made Li Zaiming very popular in China.
However, Lee Jae-myung lost to Moon Jae-in and failed to become the presidential candidate recommended by the Democratic Party of Korea.After losing the election, Lee Jae-myung regrouped and ran for the post of governor of Gyeonggi Province, and was elected with a high vote in 2018.
During his tenure as the governor of Gyeonggi Province, Lee Jae-myung's most famous "accomplishment" was entering the "Xintianji" church to complete a compulsory investigation during the COVID-19 epidemic. According to the "JoongAng Ilbo" report, since February 19, 2020, South Korea's COVID-19 outbreak has occurred on a large scale, centered on the "Xincheonji" Church in Daegu City, but delays and errors have occurred in the transfer list. Subsequently, Lee Jae-myung led more than 40 Gyeonggi Province government officials to investigate because he was worried about missing the golden period of epidemic prevention and control.
His experience as governor of Gyeonggi Province has significantly increased his advantage in the "World War II" campaign. Dong Xiangrong said that having served two terms as mayor of Seongnam City and one term as governor of Gyeonggi Province, Li Zaiming has relatively rich political experience. After two elections, Lee Jae-myung's political style is much more stable than before, uniting forces inside and outside the party in order to win the election.
In this election, "economy" is the key focus of Lee Jae-ming's policies. In the entire campaign manifesto, according to statistics from the Hankyoreh Daily, the words "economy" and "growth" appear most frequently, with "economy" appearing 18 times and "growth" 11 times. Lee Jae-myung promised that after being elected, he would make up for shortcomings and correct mistakes on the basis of former South Korean presidents Kim Dae-jung , Roh Moo-hyun and Moon Jae-in, in order to establish a "more capable" government.
The “shortcomings” here may refer to Moon Jae-in’s economic policies. Dong Xiangrong pointed out that the biggest "failure" of the Moon Jae-in government is the real estate policy. Moon Jae-in has always wanted to suppress housing prices, but housing prices have approximately doubled during his term. Rising housing prices have intensified the anxiety of the younger generation, leading to a disengagement among young voters. Therefore, Lee Jae-myung has been trying to draw a clear line with the Moon Jae-in government in terms of real estate policy, advocating increasing the floor area ratio and increasing housing supply to stabilize housing prices.
Just as Lee Jae-myung's popularity was rising, multiple scandals were exposed, causing his approval rating to decline.
In September 2021, a case surrounding a real estate development project in Seongnam City, Gyeonggi Province attracted public attention again. Prosecutors believed that a little-known investment company may have won the project by bribing government officials, congressmen and other influential figures. project, and Li Zaiming was the mayor of Chengnan City at the time. Although he has repeatedly denied it, he is still accused of funneling huge benefits to real estate developers and even causing "huge distrust" within the party.
Soon after, it was exposed that Li Zaiming's son was involved in online gambling, and Li Zaiming's wife was exposed that she often used civil servants to do errands for him and used public resources privately. Li Zaiming also publicly apologized successively.
Election defeat: There is great uncertainty in the future political path
In fact, the election campaign between Lee Jae-ming and Yin Xiyue is very close. According to data released by South Korea's polling agency, the support ratings of the two have been very close for a long time, and the gap is within the margin of error. In the final statistical results of South Korea's Central Election Management Commission, the vote gap between Lee Jae-myung and Yoon Seok-yue was less than 1%.
Less than a week before the election day, the opposition parties suddenly announced a joint effort to help Yin Xiyue secure victory in advance.
On March 3, local time, the opposition camp decided to join forces to stop Lee Jae-ming. Yin Xiyue and the Nationalist Party candidate Ahn Cheol-soo held a press conference and announced the recommendation of Yin Xiyue as the single candidate. Yonhap News Agency pointed out that political circles generally believe that Yin Xiyue is likely to get more free votes as a result, thereby widening the gap between him and Lee Jae-myung.
At that time, the polling data was no longer released. South Korea's Central Election Commission stated that from March 3 to 9 at 7:30 pm, it is prohibited to publish election-related poll results, and it is also prohibited to quote the results of polls conducted after the 3rd in reports.
Yonhap News Agency pointed out that this move is aimed at preventing poll results from causing voters to support candidates who have a chance of winning or supporting disadvantaged candidates, and to avoid inaccurate polls from damaging the fairness of the election.
was troubled by scandals and was blocked by the opposition parties. Under the influence of various factors, Lee Jae-myung once again missed the presidency.Dong Xiangrong pointed out that, in fact, similar to five years ago, Lee Jae-myung is still not a mainstream faction within the Democratic Party, but he still used his political skills to defeat the highly vocal former South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon and win the party's primary election , which is already a very important political achievement for Li Zaiming.
Talking about Lee Jae-myung’s political prospects, Li Min believes that in this election, Lee Jae-myung’s local political experience is a huge plus for him. This is actually the most favorable opportunity for Lee Jae-myung to challenge the president. This defeat is also a big plus for him. It was a big blow to him. There is still great uncertainty about Lee Jae-myung's future political path, because from the perspective of the local chief executive, Lee Jae-myung has almost reached the "peak". If Lee Jae-myung intends to go further, he may focus on the mayoral election of Seoul in the future or the election of members of the National Assembly in two years.
Beijing News reporter Luan Ruoxi
editor Zhang Lei proofreader Liu Yue
