Future vision is key to the new party’s success

The four minor political parties on Friday declared they would merge to form a united front against the governing People Power Party (PPP) and the majority Democratic Party (DP). The name of the new party under the joint leadership of former DP leader Lee Nak-yon and former PPP leader Lee Jun-seok is the New Reform Party. The post of its general campaign manager for the April 10 parliamentary elections will be taken by Lee Nak-yon, who served as prime minister during the Moon Jae-in administration.

In the first meeting on Saturday after the declaration of the merger, leaders of the new party vowed to not create satellite parties simply to get more seats designated for 47 proportional representatives, as opposed to the PPP and the DP. If the new party is launched, the upcoming election will be a three-way contest for the first time in eight years.

The two mainstream parties are keenly alerted by the scheduled merger of the four minor parties just two months before the election. As if to show their uneasiness about the creation of the new party, the PPP ridiculed it for turning into “a bowl of bibimbap mixed with incompatible ingredients” and “a feminist pro-Moon leftist party,” while the DP criticized it for “integrating for the worse.”

The emergence of a third party reflects voters’ strong antipathy toward the negative effects of the dominant two parties in Korean politics. The voters are prepared to punish both the inability and obstinacy of the PPP and the ideology-driven tyranny of the DP in legislation. The solid existence of the 20 to 30 percent of voters who support neither party proves their disappointment about the two major parties. Announcing the merger, the new party underscored “there is no future for the country if the two parties’ dominance continues.” The new party can critically affect some tight races in Seoul and Gyeonggi, in particular.

And yet, the future of the new party is not so bright due to their rush to unite regardless of their intrinsic differences in ideology and identity. Skepticism has erupted over the possibility of their chemical integration, due to the gap in their stances on diplomacy, security, economy, labor and gender. The party’s opaque leadership and regional base also can spike serious discords in the process of nominating candidates in the election.

If the new party wants to win over the moderates, it must give up its naïve hope of getting benefits from its frame of demonizing President Yoon Suk Yeol and DP leader Lee Jae-myung. Instead, the party must present convincing visions for new politics by ending the old system based on extreme confrontation between the two mega parties. If the new party can bring in genuinely reform-minded talent from outside, it can help the party overcome the limits. If the new party only seeks to make itself bigger, it will surely follow in the footsteps of the hastily-merged non-mainstream parties as in the past.