The Constitutional Court has announced that it will go ahead with the preliminary hearing, the government and the opposition cannot reach an agreement on the veto power of the prime minister, who has now assumed the role of interim president, and several important bills remain. deadlocked in Parliament. A new call from the Korean bishops to collaborate so that the democratic process is respected.
Seoul () – Even with the approval of the impeachment against Yoon Suk-yeol, the South Korean Executive remains paralyzed. While investigations are underway, the government and opposition continue to clash over a series of bills stalled in Parliament that were the trigger for the February 3 coup. Meanwhile, the Constitutional Court has initiated impeachment proceedings against the president and will decide within six months whether to dismiss or reinstate Yoon.
But it is necessary for the six current judges to vote in favor of impeachment to remove the president and then call elections within 60 days. Yesterday the Court decided that it will hold the preliminary hearing on December 27, although it is working with a reduced number of judges. Indeed, there should have been nine judges on the court, but the three who retired in October had not yet been replaced before the proclamation of martial law that opened the case against Yoon. And it is not clear whether they will be appointed in the coming weeks, because the People Power Party PPP, from which Yoon comes, and the Democratic Party, which leads the opposition and has controlled Parliament since April, cannot reach an agreement on this issue (the Democratic Party wants to appoint the three missing judges before the end of the year, while the PPP says it cannot be done before Yoon’s case is tried), as well as all other political decisions that correspond to the president.
Although Prime Minister Han Duck-soo has taken on the role of acting head of government, there is no agreement on what his duties and powers should be. Especially there is no agreement on the presidential veto power in relation to legislative proposals stalemates in Parliament, including the appointment of two special prosecutors: one to investigate Yoon’s declaration of martial law, and the other to investigate the activities of first lady Kim Keon-hee, who has been the center of several scandals. After the PPP called on Han to reject the bills, the Democratic Party threatened to file a new impeachment motion against the prime minister.
But the two parties also disagree on all the other laws proposed so far by the Democratic Party, referring to the stabilization of prices in the agricultural market, the approval of the budget after the deadline and the presentation of data to deputies by of the companies. These are all issues that the PPP has opposed until now, and if Han Duck-soo were to apply a presidential veto to one of these bills, it would set an important precedent. The Government announced today that it will hold an extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers in the coming days to decide how to manage the veto power. For his part, Han Duck-soo did not comment on the matter, but announced thatto favor the stock market recoverythe approved budget for 2025 will be implemented from January 1.
The political stalemate had actually already begun in April, with the opposition’s victory in the parliamentary elections. However, the events of recent weeks, with South Korean society increasingly polarized Even in the demonstrations in the streets, new fractures are being created within the PPP itself, which had initially proposed an “orderly exit” for Yoon Suk-yeol. As the days went by, several members of the party reviewed their positions, including its president, Han Dong-hoon, who after being pressured by the pro-Yoon faction, yesterday presented his resignation: “I sincerely apologize to all the people who are suffering because of this emergency situation,” he said during a televised news conference.
Immediately after the parliamentary vote on the impeachment, the bishops of South Korea also released a new statement calling on political forces to collaborate: “It is time to put aside partisan differences and work together for the well-being of the country.” and its people,” said Bishop Mathias Ri Iong-hoon, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea. The prelate, who is also bishop of Suwon, stressed the need to remain united and build a country where everyone is. equal before the law and in which “no one can impose their will on the people”, ignoring the democratic process.
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