[Anchor]
As Minister nominee Yong Hye-in insists on keeping her proportional representative lawmaker seat in a break from tradition, even members of the ruling party have started demanding that she choose between being a minister and a lawmaker. Criticisms are also mounting that this has exposed the structural flaws of satellite parties.
Reporter Kim Kwan-jin reports.
[Reporter]
When asked today (Sept. 1) whether her stance on keeping her proportional representative lawmaker seat remains unchanged, Minister of Gender Equality and Family nominee Yong Hye-in gave this response:
[Yong Hye-in / Nominee for Minister of Gender Equality and Family (Lawmaker of the Basic Income Party): (I was wondering if there has been any change in your stance.) Thank you for your hard work.]
Demands are pouring in—even from the ruling party—for her to follow the tradition of handing over her lawmaker seat to the next candidate on the list so that opportunities can be shared and legislative vacuum minimized, as a proportional representative becomes a minister.
They argue that "holding both positions as a lawmaker and a minister is bound to be perceived as excessive privilege and greed, which the younger generation cannot accept and which could trigger social conflicts over fairness."
[Park Sun-won / Supreme Council Member of the Democratic Party: The next candidate on the list is usually already registered with the election commission. I personally think it is only right to give up the proportional representative seat.]
The People Power Party claimed that the reason for keeping the lawmaker seat is related to state party subsidies.
[Park Choong-kwon / Senior Spokesperson for the People Power Party: It is because the Basic Income Party would be reduced to an extra-parliamentary party and lose 1.1 billion won in taxpayer-funded subsidies.]
The Basic Income Party rebutted that while the People Power Party receives about 5 billion won in state subsidies every quarter, the Basic Income Party received around 9 million won per quarter, and that its subsidies were increased this time after securing nearly 1 percent of the vote in the June 3 local elections.
The Basic Income Party is a parliamentary party that also met the threshold of "0.5 percent of the vote in a nationwide election," receiving approximately 270 million won in subsidies for the third quarter of this year.
However, due to the distorted structure of the proportional satellite party—where a Democratic Party member would inherit nominee Yong's proportional representative seat—stepping down as a lawmaker would reduce the Basic Income Party's subsidy to 0 won starting from the next quarter.
The Justice Party strongly criticized the situation, stating, "This structure itself is a bizarre outcome created by the politics of satellite parties, which is a foul play against democracy," and adding, "There is no reason for citizens to cut them any slack."
(Photo courtesy of: Oh Young-chun, Kim Yong-woo | Video editing: Jang Hyun-ki | Design: Yang Ki-tae)
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