The failure of Yoon Suk Yeol’s party in parliamentary elections will make his last three years hard
election without a bit of spectacle. This year’s campaign, for parliamentary elections on April 10th, featured one legislator expressing penance by shaving his head and riding around in a wooden cage, another proving his “authenticity” by posing shirtless, and still more engaging in pre-recorded rap battles about policy during the vote.
Mr Yoon’s unfavourability rating has hovered in the low 30s for most of his time in office. His party’s election prospects were not helped by accusations of corruption against his first lady or his government’s inability to resolve a dispute with doctors who have been striking since February. But ultimately it was pocketbook issues like inflation and housing prices that topped voters’ concerns.
Perversely, Mr Yoon may be glad to have an unco-operative opposition as an excuse for domestic policy failure. Two years in, his teama detailed or sufficiently ambitious plan for resolving the country’s problems. These include a younger generation unable to find decent jobs or afford a house, a rapidly ageing population and the world’s lowest fertility rate, just 0.72.
The president will probably concentrate on areas in which he has already had some success, such as strengthening South Korea’s alliance with America and trying to improve the country’s troubled relationship with Japan. Yet Mr Lee,and keen to see South Korea adopt a more balanced approach to the Sino-American rivalry, may try to upset that agenda. Even where he is strongest, Mr Yoon may find legacy-building a challenge.
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