Yong Hye-in Once Argued 6 Years Ago That State Subsidies "Breed Parasitic Parties and Should Be Abolished"

It was confirmed today (the 4th) that Minister of Gender Equality and Family nominee Yong Hye-in, who faces criticism for attempting to hold onto her lawmaker seat to protect state subsidies for her party, argued six years ago that state subsidies for political parties should be abolished, comparing parties that receive them to "parasites."

In February 2020, the Basic Income Party posted a press release and photos on its official website regarding a press conference, titled "Abolish State Subsidies That Breed Parasitic Parties and Introduce Political Basic Income."

A modified image parodying the poster of the movie "Parasite" shows nominee Yong holding a sign reading "Abolish National Subsidies and Introduce Political Basic Income" while standing alongside other participants.

In the press release at the time, the Basic Income Party claimed, "Parasitic politics eyeing state subsidies is repeating," adding, "In particular, many political forces calculate state subsidies ahead of elections and merge or split accordingly."

They also criticized, "The National Assembly has been so paralyzed that it earned the nickname 'animal National Assembly,' yet subsidies are paid out in full whether they work or not."

They further proposed, "Instead of parasitic politics that merge and split based on subsidies, let us distribute state subsidies to the citizens and introduce an annual political basic income of 100,000 won so they can directly participate in politics."

These past arguments contrast sharply with the reasoning nominee Yong provided on Facebook on August 31, the day after her nomination as Minister of Gender Equality and Family, when she stated that she must maintain her proportional representation lawmaker seat.

In her Facebook post, nominee Yong stated, "If I, as the party's sole lawmaker, step down, the Basic Income Party faces difficulties of becoming an extra-parliamentary party."

This has been interpreted as presenting the loss of state subsidies, which occurs when a party loses its parliamentary status, as the reason why she must retain her lawmaker seat.

Current political funds laws stipulate that regular subsidies should be equally distributed and paid out based on factors such as local election vote shares, under the premise that a party holds seats in the National Assembly.

Controversy has followed over whether nominee Yong's decision to maintain her lawmaker seat for the sake of the party—having entered parliament through a satellite party rather than her own Basic Income Party—is a political maneuver obsessed with preserving state subsidies.

Regarding nominee Yong taking a stance starkly different from six years ago, People Power Party lawmaker Cho Ji-yeon of the National Assembly's Gender Equality and Family Committee pointed out, "The appearance of shouting for justice and reform on the outside while enjoying the benefits of the very system they criticized on the inside is the epitome of hypocrisy and double standards."

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.