Yoon Suk-yeol’s intentional remarks, politicians are overwhelmed… Preliminary flagging for presidential election?

As Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol broke a long silence and poured out his intentions toward the government and ruling party, interest in his move as the next presidential election runner is also growing. With the presidential election in March of next year approaching a year ahead, the politicians are watching every step of the way without excluding the possibility of President Yoon’s running for office. In the midst of this, when President Yoon expressed his first official and strong opposition to the establishment of the Severe Investigation Office being promoted by the ruling party in power, he was busy analyzing the ripple effect and the impact it would have. In the midst of this, the Blue House also announced on the 2nd that “the prosecution should respect the National Assembly and carefully express opinions according to the established procedures.” Although it is a principled position, it is known that there was a lot of atmosphere inside the Blue House that President Yoon Suk-yeol’s remarks were impatient.

Even in the political world on the 2nd, a spectator comment came out on whether the timing and content of President Yoon’s remarks contained political intentions. Isn’t it a paving stone for the next presidential election? This interpretation was created by the fact that it remained silent for a while amid the ruling party’s pressure for reform by the prosecution, and publicly criticized the Seoul-Busan mayoral elections, which are considered to be before the presidential election, just a month away.

In fact, President Yoon is currently the only opposition president who is supported by public opinion. In a survey conducted by Real Meter on the 22nd and 26th of last month to 2,356 people nationwide, President Yoon ranked second with 15.5%, the same as Lee Nak-yeon and Democratic Party representative. The first place was Gyeonggi Governor Lee Jae-myeong with 23.6%.

While the approval ratings of the opposition Jam-ryong candidates are mostly single digits, President Yoon has been forming the’Big Three’ with governor Lee Nak-yeon and Governor Lee Jae-myeong of the ruling party for several months. In politics, the observation that Yun will not run for the next president is still predominant. It is because there is not enough time to physically prepare for the presidential election if Yoon continues his incumbent duties until his term in office in July, and the conservatives’ antipathy against the opposition candidate Moon Jae-in government prosecutor’s office is expected to be considerable. . Even within the power of the people, the first opposition party, there is an atmosphere that draws a line about President Yoon’s personal intention to enter the political world. Kim Jong-in, chairman of the People’s Power Emergency Response Committee, met with reporters on this day and said, “I think there is no need to comment any more because I think that President Yoon’s remarks represent the position of the prosecution.” Kim Ki-hyun, a former judge, said, “I don’t think there was any political intention in the remarks of President Yoon,” he said. In the midst of this, the ruling party refrained from responding directly. Even at the in-hospital countermeasure meeting that day, in-hospital representative Kim Tae-nyeon and others did not comment on Yun. An official from the Democratic Party said, “The reaction of President Yoon was expected, and the party said,’No response’ is the main keynote.” Since there is a precedent that Yoon formed a conflict structure with former Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae last year and raised the ransom as a presidential candidate, this means that he will not create a picture of conflict itself.

It also contains a judgment that the appointment of the successor prosecutor-general will begin in earnest from May as early as the expiration of the term of office in July. Democratic Party spokesman Shin Young-dae did not attach much meaning to the reporters, saying, “It was said four months before the term of office.” Rep. Kim Nam-guk, a special member of the party’s prosecution reform special committee, also criticized that “there were many phases that the prosecutor general had to be responsible for, but at that time, it would be ridiculous if the prosecutor general was not responsible for any of them, but only a few months left in office. Under the water, he expressed his displeasure toward President Yun. One pro-Moon Jae-in-gye lawmaker said, “I tried to embrace President Moon Jae-in as the’current government prosecutor general’ until the end, but it was revealed again that Yun was a person who had no interest other than defending the vested interests of the prosecution.”

[채종원 기자 / 정주원 기자]
[ⓒ 매일경제 & mk.co.kr, 무단전재 및 재배포 금지]