'referendum' on President Yoon

Koreans will go to the polls to renew 300 seats in the National Assembly. Crucial moment for the conservative president, who until now has had to seek votes in a House controlled by his Democratic adversaries to get the laws approved. Yoon's popularity is very weakened at the moment. The mystery of the new Rebuilding Korea Party, which is proposed as a third force.

Seoul () – South Korea will go to the polls on April 10 to renew the Legislative Assembly, its parliament. It is a crucial moment for conservative President Yoon Suk-yeol, who in 2022 defeated his opponent, Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party, by a handful of votes, but who has so far had to deal with a parliament controlled by the opposition.

The polls – which were suspended a week ago, according to current rules in Seoul – show that the two parties are close, although Yoon's popularity is at its lowest point today, severely affected by rising food prices. , the doctors' strike that has been going on for weeks and also due to the scandal involving his wife Kim Keon-hee, who is accused of having accepted as a gift a bag valued at more than 2,000 euros. On the other side of the barricade, however, Lee also had to face accusations of corruption, as well as a knife attack that landed him in intensive care in January.

44.28 million voters are called to vote to elect the 300 new members of the National Assembly. Of these, 254 will be elected to represent the different districts into which the country is divided, while another 46 seats will be assigned according to the proportional system. In South Korea it is possible to resort to early voting, an option that more than 31% of voters have already taken advantage of in recent days, including President Yoon himself. It should be added that – although the electoral system favors bipolarism – there is also a lot of curiosity about the result that the Rebuilding Korea Party will obtain, a new party founded by Cho Kuk, former Minister of Justice in the Moon government, which according to some polls would obtain the 20% of the vote, not far behind Yoon's People Power Party and the Democratic Party, both with more than 30%. During the electoral campaign, the Episcopal Conference also “interrogated” the parties with a questionnaire whose answers were made public in recent days.

The two opposition forces aspire to together surpass the threshold of 200 seats, an eventuality that would put the current president in serious difficulties. In any case, any result of these elections should not have major repercussions on Seoul's foreign policy, which with Yoon will help North Korea strengthen ties with Washington and Tokyo. Indeed, the country's institutional structure leaves the president a wide margin of maneuver in international politics.