6·3 지방선거의 후폭풍: 거대 양당의 내부 분열과 뉴밀레니엄 정치의 종언 > K-wave Trends

Despite the Democratic Party of Korea's success in securing seats nationwide in this election, it is facing a harsh assessment internally that it is an election it lost even though it won. Although the leadership is proud of its victory under the leadership of Representative Chung Cheong-rae, there is a strong argument within the party that the leadership is responsible, based on the defeat in battlegrounds in the metropolitan area and the simultaneous defeat of 'pro-Moon Jae-in' candidates. In particular, the resignation of Supreme Council member Lee Eon-joo is being interpreted as a strong opposition to Representative Chung's dictatorial system, and is accelerating the division of the Democratic Party ahead of the party leadership competition. With Prime Minister Kim Min-seok's move to return to the party and challenge for party leadership ahead of the national convention, and the possibility of former leader Song Young-gil's reappearance, the conflict between factions within the party has reached its peak.

The hegemony struggle between the pro-Ming world and the pro-Moon world is now evolving into a blatant power struggle. The incident in which Prime Minister Kim Min-seok clicked ‘Like’ on a Facebook post by pro-Myung-leaning broadcaster Kim Yong-min symbolically shows a cross-section of the division within the party. The article poured out harsh criticism toward speakers from the pro-Moon camp, including Kim Eo-jun and Jeong Cheong-rae, and this was tantamount to a declaration of war that the pro-Moon camp would no longer tolerate the influence of the pro-Moon group. In particular, the failure of Cho Kuk, the candidate for the Cho Kuk Reform Party, and the defeat of Jeong Won-oh, the mayoral candidate for Seoul, indicate that the political assets of the pro-Moon group have virtually been depleted, and the position of the pro-Moon group within the Democratic Party has become increasingly narrow.

The People Power Party is also experiencing an internal leadership crisis, with mixed evaluations of the election results. Although there are evaluations that the administration did well in the early difficult conditions, small factions that claim to have an alternative and a future are defining this election as a crushing defeat and criticizing the leadership's lack of capacity. In particular, the low vote rate of candidate Park Min-sik, who competed closely with former representative Han Dong-hoon, and his struggles in the Busan region are leading to analysis that the unity within the conservative camp is not as strong as it used to be. Along with distrust of Representative Jang Dong-hyuk's system, the controversy over the lack of ballots and the National Election Commission's mismanagement issues that arose during the election process are further stimulating anxiety among conservative supporters and are contributing to confusion within the party.

The biggest political implication of this election is the decline of so-called 'New Millennium politicians' and the pressure for a new generation. The fact that the next generation of the pro-Moon camp, such as Kim Kyung-soo and Cho Kuk, and the pro-Park faction's leading figures have suffered one after another shows that voters are tired of the old political grammar that relies on a specific lineage. The defeat of Busan mayoral candidate Park Hyeong-jun revealed that the expansion of the pro-Lee faction had reached its limits, and the loss of a large number of pro-Park faction candidates in the Chungcheong region proved that even the influence of former President Park Geun-hye, who was called the 'queen of elections', was disappearing into the back of history. Politics now demands a pragmatic approach based on individual competitiveness and the new spirit of the times, rather than the victory of genealogy.