Yoon Suk Yeol provoked a political crisis last Tuesday (3) by announcing the application of martial law and ordering the deployment of troops to Parliament
The da , Yoon Suk Yeol, survived this Saturday (7) the vote in Parliament on a motion of , thanks to the boycott of his party’s deputies and amid large protests in the capital. Yoon provoked a political crisis on Tuesday (3) by announcing the application of martial law and ordering the deployment of troops to Parliament, a measure that he was forced to abandon a few hours later, due to a vote by deputies against the decree.
Opposition parties presented the proposal to vote on a impeachment motion this Saturday. To advance in the plenary, the measure needed a two-thirds majority of deputies. But almost all deputies from President Yoon’s party, the People’s Power Party (PPP), walked out of the National Assembly and condemned the motion to failure.
“The number of members who voted did not reach the required two-thirds majority,” announced Parliament Speaker Woo Won-shik, making the result of the motion “invalid.” The PPP stated that it decided to block the motion to avoid “great divisions and chaos” in the country and promised that “the crisis will have a more orderly and responsible resolution”. The result disappointed thousands of people – 150,000 according to police or a million according to organizers – who protested in front of Parliament in Seoul. Protesters screamed and cried in frustration as ruling party deputies left the plenary.
President “politically dead”
Before the vote, the opposition promised to present a new motion in case of failure and many protesters stated that they intend to continue with the mobilization. “I will remove Yoon Suk Yeol, who has become the biggest risk to South Korea, at any cost,” said opposition leader Lee Jae-myung. Before the vote, Yoon, 63 years old, apologized for his decision and that he left the mandate in the hands of the PPP.
“I caused anxiety and inconvenience to the population. I sincerely apologize to the citizens who felt very distressed,” he said in a speech shown on television, in his first public appearance in three days. Only three PPP deputies, Ahn Cheol-soo, Kim Yea-ji and Kim Sang-wook, participated in Saturday’s vote. The failure of the impeachment motion “represents a more prolonged political crisis,” Vladimir Tikhonov, professor of Korean Studies at the University of Oslo, told AFP.
“We will have a politically dead president, unable to govern any longer, and hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets every week until Yoon is removed from office,” he added. If the motion had been approved, Yoon would have been suspended from his duties to await a decision from the Constitutional Court. A survey published on Friday showed that the president’s support index fell to 13%, the lowest result in history.
Police began investigating Yoon and others for alleged insurrection. Before declaring martial law, Yoon, in the minority in Parliament since April’s legislative elections, was in a bitter struggle with opposition deputies, who recently made cuts to the government budget for next year. In his speech on Tuesday night, Yoon assured that martial law would serve to protect a liberal South Korea from “threats posed by communist forces in North Korea” and “by anti-state elements that steal the freedom and happiness of the people ”.
Security forces blocked access to the National Assembly, several helicopters landed on the roof of the building and almost 300 soldiers tried to close down Parliament. Meanwhile, Parliament staff blocked soldiers from entering the chamber with sofas and fire extinguishers, while MPs, some of whom had to climb over the bars to enter, voted against Yoon’s decree.
Published by Luisa Cardoso
*With information from AFP
