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Reuters
2 hours ago
- Business
- Reuters
South Korea's presidential election set to reshape key policies
South Korean liberal candidate Lee Jae-myung is projected to win next week's snap presidential election, a result that could reorient a major U.S. ally on policies ranging from China to nuclear weapons and North Korea. Gabe Singer reports.
Reuters
2 hours ago
- General
- Reuters
Poles to choose between pro-EU, MAGA paths in presidential vote
Poles vote in a presidential election on Sunday (May 18) that the pro-European government in Warsaw says can revive its stalled democratic drive and its nationalist opponents see as a chance to set Poland on a path inspired by U.S. President Donald Trump. Olivia Zollino reports.
Reuters
2 hours ago
- General
- Reuters
Warsaw sees rival rallies for Trzaskowski, Nawrocki
Thousands of people flooded the streets of Warsaw on Sunday (May 25) to rally behind candidates in next week's tightly contested presidential election, an event the government sees as pivotal to its push for democratic reform.
Irish Times
12 hours ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Lee Jae-myung: The man set to take over South Korea's turbulent democracy
The crowd outside Seoul Children's Grand Park was a few hundred strong, many of them holding blue balloons and some with flags on flexible poles about 10 metres tall. The mood was buoyant, principally because their Democratic Party candidate, Lee Jae-myung (61), was more than 10 points ahead in the polls. He is on course to win South Korea's presidential election next Tuesday. Warm-up speakers reminded supporters that early voting was under way (more than 20 per cent of eligible voters had cast their ballots by Friday morning) and led chants of the candidate's name. Then local politicians dressed in the blue-and-white campaign uniform joined younger activists in a K pop-style dance to welcome Lee onstage. READ MORE Lee, who survived an assassination attempt last year, campaigns in a bulletproof vest and he spoke from a lectern behind three protective screens with personal protection officers on either side of him. Narrowly defeated by Yoon Suk Yeol of the conservative People Power Party in 2022, Lee's second tilt at the South Korean presidency has come two years ahead of schedule following Yoon's impeachment in April over his declaration of martial law last December . 'I never imagined that martial law would be declared in broad daylight for no apparent reason. I couldn't believe it,' Lee told the crowd at Seoul Children's Grand Park. 'This country, which is one of the world's top 10 economic powers and even called a cultural powerhouse, so that people all over the world sing Korean pop songs, watch Korean dramas, eat Korean food, and want to visit Korea ... would anyone believe that such a country would have a coup and become a military dictatorship where soldiers run the country?' Yoon Suk Yeol, then South Korean president, makes a televised briefing on December 3rd in which he declares martial law. Photograph: Ahn Young-joon/AP Yoon, frustrated by what he saw as illegitimate obstructionism by the Democratic Party's majority in the National Assembly, declared martial law in a televised announcement at 10.30pm on December 3rd. He suspended all political activity, put the media under state control and deployed hundreds of armed troops to the legislature in an attempt to prevent it from meeting. Crowds gathered at the National Assembly building to stop the military from occupying it and helped legislators to climb over barriers to go inside. By 4.30am, they voted by 190 votes to zero to overturn the martial law declaration. Six hours after he made it, Yoon revoked it. The legislature voted to impeach Yoon on December 14th and he was arrested a month later for abuse of power, prompting a riot by his supporters. Last month, the constitutional court unanimously confirmed Yoon's impeachment, opening the way to next week's presidential election. Lee has dismissed the conservative People Power Party's candidate Kim Moon Soo as 'Yoon's avatar', warning that his victory could see a return of the former president and those around him. Political scientist Kim Woo Sang said: 'The impact is that the framing of this presidential election is the one the Democratic Party is making, that we have to do away with the so-called treacherous and treasonous forces, and that they are the democrats which will turn the country around.' Kim Moon Soo, centre, the candidate for South Korea's People Power Party, arrives to cast his ballot during early voting for the presidential election on Thursday. Photograph: Jung Yeon-je/Getty A former adviser to Kim Dae-jung, the Democratic Party's most successful president of South Korea, Kim Woo Sang also served as a member of the National Assembly. But he is suspicious of Lee, whom the conservative People Power Party accuse of having dictatorial tendencies. 'If he becomes a dictator, he will be a dictator because he already has the legislature doing his bidding, constitutional or not. They say that he can do no wrong,' he said. 'So if he becomes president, he will push through Bills as he sees fit. He's already been blackmailing and threatening the judiciary, which was the only leftover of the so-called free system.' Born into poverty in a remote mountain village, Lee skipped secondary school to work in a factory where an industrial accident caused a permanent injury to his arm at the age of 13. He went back to school later, winning a scholarship to university to study law and going on to work as a human rights lawyer. A former mayor of Seongnam, a city of one million people and governor of Gyeonggi province, Lee has faced investigations for corruption, bribery and conflicts of interest. Last November, he was convicted of making false statements during the 2022 presidential election campaign, but the conviction was overturned by the Seoul high court in March. The supreme court overturned that decision on May 1st, sending the case back to the high court. His Democratic Party has floated a proposal to expand the supreme court from 14 justices to 30 or even 100, including non-lawyers. Lee has played down the proposal during the campaign, but reforming the judiciary is among the proposals in his party's official platform published this week. The platform also includes proposals for democratic control over the president's right to declare martial law and plans to punish those who supported Yoon's actions last December. Although Yoon's invocation of martial law was a shock to South Korea's democracy, his fall from grace is part of a pattern. Since the introduction of democracy in the late 1980s, almost every president has ended up being impeached or jailed. 'To all intents and purposes, it's a democracy. But its democracy has a particular characteristic where the emphasis is on the rule by the people as opposed to the rule by the institutions,' said Michael Breen, the author of The New Koreans, who has lived in Seoul for more than 40 years. 'There's a word called minshim, which means public sentiment, but in the Korean meaning it's something more visceral. It's like a collective emotional feeling. What happened when democracy came is that authoritarianism went out of the window and moving into its place was this idea of the voice of the people.' Protesters take part in a demonstration last December in Seoul against Yoon Suk Yeol, then president. Photograph: Ezra Acayan/Getty As a former correspondent for British and American newspapers, Breen has watched the same pattern unfold during each South Korean presidency. The president can only serve one five-year term in office and each one starts with a high approval rating. 'Then it goes down, down, down. And by the end, their own party's candidate to succeed them doesn't want their support it because it's just poison, he said. 'And what we've had added into that mix of that pattern now is impeachment. So when the Democratic Party won a majority last year in the assembly, they interpreted that as a message from the people. Their stated objective was to get rid of Yoon, and then he obliged by being a jerk.' Despite his legal problems, Lee may be protected from the threat of impeachment by the majority his Democratic Party commands in the national assembly and the lack of legislative elections for the next three years. So he has a good chance of implementing the policies he has campaigned on, including on foreign affairs and relations with North Korea . Yoon took a hard line towards Pyongyang, downgrading the institutional framework that is supposed to be preparing for reunification and focusing instead on bolstering South Korea's defence. He drew close to the United States and, more controversially, Japan and adopted a more confrontational approach to China and Russia . A woman in Seoul walks past a banner showing Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate for the Democratic Party, and Kim Moon Soo, the People Power Party's contender. Photograph: Anthony Wallace/Getty Lee has promised to reduce tensions on the Korean peninsula by restoring communication lines with Pyongyang, although he has acknowledged there is no immediate prospect of dialogue. This is because North Korea has formally abandoned its aspiration for unification and declared South Korea its enemy. Lee made clear this week that one motivation for his wish to renew engagement with North Korea is to ensure that Seoul is not cut out of talks if Donald Trump revives his negotiations with Kim Jong Un . Trump met the North Korean leader during his first term in the White House and they exchanged numerous letters, but denuclearisation talks ended in failure. 'The North Korean denuclearisation process has long since stalled. The North's nuclear and missile capabilities are growing stronger every day. We can no longer stand idly by,' he said. 'North Korea policy should not be a political tool. We should only think about how to achieve peace and unification.' Lee has also advocated a reset of South Korea's relationships with China and Russia, along with other Brics countries, a prospect that causes unease in some European capitals. He defended his approach this week as a pragmatic response to a shifting geopolitical landscape. 'China is South Korea's important trading partner and a key influence on the security of the Korean Peninsula. I would stabilise the relationship between China, which has reached its lowest point under the previous administration,' he said. 'US-Russia relations and the war in Ukraine are entering a new phase. I would treat our relations with Russia from a national interest-first perspective, contribute to the reconstruction of Ukraine and conduct pragmatic diplomacy for the security of Korea and our businesses.' Voters in Seoul queue to cast their ballots on Friday during early voting in the presidential election. Photograph: Anthony Wallace/Getty Trump has threatened to impose a 25 per cent tariff on all Korean goods, although he has postponed its implementation for 90 days along with his 'reciprocal tariffs' on other countries. Reports from Washington suggest that his administration is also considering cuts to the US military presence in South Korea and demanding that Seoul pays more to keep them there. 'I would say if Trump pulls troops out and raises the tariffs like that, I think public opinion towards the US will certainly not be good,' Kim said. 'And then if Lee Jae-myung is president, he will use that to oppose the US, reorient and grow closer to China and Russia. I think that's how it's going to work out.' Breen is more sanguine and although he has his doubts about Lee's commitment to real political reform that could limit his powers as president he believes fears about a shift in foreign policy are overblown. 'I think he's a pragmatist. He's talked about the importance of the American relationship and it's the most important relationship,' he said. 'He might make an effort towards China, but he'll have to be careful not to be embarrassed by them because they will want something more than he's able to give. 'I think every country is having this problem now because of where Trump is going with tariffs and stuff. You've got to be on the right side of that in a very pragmatic way.'
Reuters
a day ago
- General
- Reuters
Punch-ups and tobacco pouches: Polish presidential race gets personal
WARSAW, May 30 (Reuters) - The centrist frontrunner in Poland's knife-edge presidential election on Sunday says Poles know everything about him, contrasting that with the slew of media reports about his nationalist opponent's alleged past conduct. "The President of the Republic of Poland cannot be someone about whom we learn something every day that not only puzzles us, but often terrifies us," Rafal Trzaskowski, from the ruling Civic Coalition, told a rally in the southern Polish town of Chrzanow on Tuesday. The past of opposition Law and Justice-backed candidate Karol Nawrocki has dominated public debate - be it questions over his acquisition of a flat from a pensioner or an admission that he took part in orchestrated brawls. "All my sports activities were based on the strength of my heart, the strength of my muscles, my fists," Nawrocki, a historian and amateur boxer, told a debate when confronted over reports he had been involved in mass organised fights between football hooligans. "It was a fair competition, regardless of the form." He had previously denied wrongdoing in relation to accusations that he lied about owning the flat, a second property, and that he had acquired it from the elderly man in return for a promise of care which he did not provide. After questioning about the issue, he said he would give the flat to charity, dismissing what he called "media lies". Nawrocki also faced criticism for inserting a 'snus' tobacco pouch under his lip during a live debate, with an Opinia24 survey for private broadcaster TVN showing that 53% of respondents viewed this negatively. His Law and Justice party backers have accused the government of orchestrating the controversies with the help of Poland's special services and liberal media. The government rejects these accusations. Trzaskowski, meanwhile, has faced questions over whether a series of advertisements criticising his opponents subverted campaign spending rules. He also denies any wrongdoing. If he wins, the Polish government will be able to continue reforms to bring it into line with European Union norms on issues like judicial independence and LGBT rights. If Nawrocki wins, he is likely to use his veto, as the current president has done, to block them, arguing that Poland should take a conservative path inspired by the policies of U.S. President Donald Trump. Despite the stream of negative coverage, Nawrocki's polling numbers appear largely unscathed, with Trzaskowski's lead within the margin of error. A survey by CBOS showed that 99% of people who voted for Nawrocki in the first round would also back him in the second. Andrzej Rychard, a sociologist from the Polish Academy of Science, said that the deep polarisation in Polish politics meant that many Law and Justice voters dismissed the allegations as untrue or decided that "even if it is true, it still does not bother me". Added to this Rychard said that Nawrocki had projected an image of himself as someone from a humble background who can get things done. "He comes rather from the bottom, that is, from difficult environments, which does not necessarily have to be a source of antipathy, on the contrary, it may be well-received by a large part of the electorate, who do not identify with the elite." Nawrocki's campaign say that Warsaw Mayor Trzaskowski is an out-of-touch metropolitan liberal who doesn't understand ordinary Poles. They have mocked his fluency in five foreign languages, nicknaming him 'Bazur', a Polonised transcription of the French word 'bonjour'. For Trzaskowski's supporters, meanwhile, the allegations about Nawrocki make him completely unsuitable for the nation's highest office. "He has no idea about politics," said 68-year-old market trader Stanislaw, who declined to give his surname and repeated some of the allegations in the media reports to show why he did not trust him. Jacek, a 73-year-old pensioner who also declined to give his surname, took a different view. "He is a patriot, kind to people, an honest person, a strong person, which is exactly what we are missing," he said. Asked about Nawrocki's involvement in fights, he said "young people do those kinds of things".
