Some threw their heads back, others buried them between their knees, and the last covered their faces with their hands. The images underlined the unfathomable desolation of the conservative legislators when your president, Yoon Suk-yeol, defended on Thursday martial law and promised fight until the end. He had just broken the pact of an early departure, the last hope to save the furniture. To the People’s Party (PPP) you have no other alternative but let him fallcredited with their stubborn unconsciousness, in the upcoming parliamentary impeachment process and prepare for potentially destructive elections.
It was his third televised intervention by surprise in just over a week. He had previously approved the martial law and then he had apologized for her. On Thursday he defended it as “a legitimate act of government” and “a highly calculated political decision.” It was not, he clarified, the betrayal or insurrection that the opposition has cooked up, but Yoon forgot to point out that his people, his party, the prosecutor’s office and the police think the same as that one. He repeated many of the arguments already made when he announced the law.
In short: that the progressives have aligned themselves with Pyongyang to torpedo the South Korean Government from Parliament. He did so, he pointed out, to “prevent the collapse of liberal democracy” and fight against the “dictatorship of Parliament.” And he warned that it could have been worse: he only sent a “small number of troops” to Parliament (there were hundreds) and did not even cut off the electricity, water or press broadcasts. “I didn’t do any of that,” he recalled.
Fight “until the end”
He PPP chief Han Dong-hoonprobably warned of the imminent presidential intervention, had said minutes before that he would suspend him with the ‘impeachment’ “It is the only way to defend democracy and the Republic.” “We have tried better ones but they haven’t worked,” he capitulated. The party and Yoon They had agreed that they would save him from the disgraceful parliamentary dismissal in exchange for an “orderly exit” and, in fact, they had already withdrawn his government and diplomatic functions two days ago. Neither organized nor disordered, Yoon answered today. will not resign and will fight “until the end”.
Los conservative legislatorsin accordance with that gentleman’s agreement, left the chamber before the impeachment vote last Saturday to ruin the quorum. In the next one, Han stated, they will be able to vote “according to their belief and conscience.” Not only freedom works against Yoon. His party has appointed Kweon Seong-dong, a veteran legislator, as parliamentary spokesperson, who despite his closeness to the president has already advanced that the presidential elections “could occur very soon.”
That scenario, the call for comics which follows a parliamentary dismissal, is the one that the PPP had wanted to avoid due to the certainty that the electorate will mercilessly punish this vaudeville that has ruined the global image of the country.
The new vote of censure It is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. (local time) on Saturday but there are hopes that the country can save it. It will not, predictably, be due to a flash of lucidity from Yoon that advises him to resign, but rather due to the action of justice. The Prosecutor’s Office has accelerated the investigation for treason, insurrection and abuse of power. An urgent detention such as the one issued against his exministro de Defensa, Kim Yong-hyun.
The police went on Wednesday to search the presidential office and it left almost empty due to the resistance of the security service. On Thursday he returned, without yet knowing the result, and visited the headquarters of the Military Juntathe largest national military body, where the commanders managed the Martial Law during his six o’clock life.
A sensible analysis of the situation indicates that the mad race of Yoon It will conclude, at the latest, on Saturday afternoon. But their obituaries were already written when Parliament annulled their martial law and, nine days later, one of the most improbable survival exercises in memory continues.
