Yong Hye-in's Past Remarks Resurface: "Parasite Parties" Claim From 6 Years Ago

It has been verified that Minister of Gender Equality and Family nominee Yong Hye-in argued for the abolition of state subsidies six years ago, comparing political parties receiving government subsidies to parasites.

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

The photos show nominee Yong standing side by side with other participants, holding a sign that reads, "Abolish state subsidies and introduce political basic income."

Notably, the image parodied the poster of the movie Parasite, with black bars placed over the eyes of the participants, including nominee Yong.

In the press conference statement at the time, the Basic Income Party claimed, "Parasitic politics targeting state subsidies is repeating itself," adding, "In particular, there are many political forces calculating state subsidies ahead of elections and splitting or merging accordingly."

It also criticized, "While the parliament has been disrupted to the point of being called an animal farm parliament, subsidies are paid out just the same regardless of whether work is done or not."

At the same time, the party proposed, "Instead of parasitic politics that merge and split depending on subsidies, let us distribute state subsidies directly to the people and introduce an annual political basic income of 100,000 won so they can participate directly in politics."

Recently, after being nominated for a ministerial post, nominee Yong expressed her intention to retain her proportional representative parliamentary seat, stating, "If I, as the party's sole member of parliament, resign, the Basic Income Party would face the difficulty of becoming an extra-parliamentary party."

In response, critics have raised objections, calling it a crafty tactic, suggesting she cannot resign from her parliamentary seat because doing so would make it difficult for the Basic Income Party to receive state subsidies.

(Reported by Park Se-won | Video by Kim Na-on | Graphics by Yang Hye-min | Produced by SBS Digital News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.