[Anchor]
Reform Party Leader Lee Jun-seok stepped down from his position today (the 26th). Lee stated that he faced difficulties in the process of finding a new path forward for the party, but political circles are paying keen attention to a remark he left behind.
Reporter Kim Bo-mi has the details.
[Reporter]
Reform Party Leader Lee Jun-seok called a press conference at the National Assembly.
Reading a brief statement of just over a minute, he announced his resignation as party leader.
This comes 13 months after he left the People Power Party in 2023, founded the Reform Party the following year to serve as its inaugural leader, and took on the leadership role once again following last year's presidential election.
[Lee Jun-seok / Leader, Reform Party: For a little over three months since the local elections, I have contemplated and proposed ways to strengthen and reform the party on our own. However, I failed to gain sufficient support within the party.]
The Reform Party yielded dismal results in the June 3 local elections, securing only one local council seat, and faced compounded bad news, including former Busan mayoral candidate Jeong I-han being investigated on charges of staging a fake attack.
Although Lee sought to break through these difficulties by strengthening new media strategies and launching an organization enhancement special committee, assessments indicate that he failed to properly secure momentum within the party.
However, a specific remark in Lee's resignation statement has sparked various interpretations.
[Lee Jun-seok / Leader, Reform Party: Before us lies an unavoidable political schedule. The time of politics waits for no one.]
With the 2028 general elections 1 year and 8 months away, analyses suggest he likely concluded that the Reform Party in its current state would find it difficult to fully shoulder one axis of the conservative opposition.
Attention is now focused on whether Lee, a potential heavyweight contender in the conservative opposition, will use his newfound operational freedom to seek solidarity with members of the People Power Party who hold anti-Jang Dong-hyeok tendencies or with reformist-conservative forces. However, an official from the Reform Party stated that, for now, neither Lee nor the leadership holds any disagreement on prioritizing self-strengthening first.
(Camera Cooperation: Lee Seung-hwan, Shin Dong-hwan | Video Editing: Chang Hyun-ki | Design: Lee Ga-jin)
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