Dem
47
GOP
53
We wrote about this yesterday, so it is no surprise, but the people of South Korea headed to the polls yesterday, and picked Lee Jae-myung of the center-left/center Democratic Party (DPK). In every political system that is substantively a two-party system, the further right party gets to be the "conservative" party, and the further left party gets to be the "liberal" party. It is certainly the case that the DPK is further left than its rival, the conservative People Power Party (PPP). However, Korean (and Asian) culture tends to be very socially conservative by Western standards, and somewhat fiscally conservative. So, the DPK platform would most certainly be center-right in, say, Germany or France.
The upshot, as we cautioned yesterday, is that this is not really a victory for the forces of liberalism over those of right-wing populism. It's a victory for people who don't like it when their government tries to impose martial law. Former president Yoon Suk Yeol, of the PPP, attempted that very maneuver and got tossed out on his rear because of it. PPP candidate Kim Moon-soo was not a part of the martial law scheme, but was deemed to have done too little to resist and denounce the maneuver. And so, Lee won yesterday by a comfortable margin, taking 49.3% of the vote to 41.3% for Kim. The rest went to Lee Jun-seok, whose name translates into English as "Jill Stein."
Both Lees, as well as Kim, campaigned on—wait for it—the economy and inflation. Immigration, the other modern-day global bugaboo, was only a minor issue, presumably because South Korea occupies a peninsula, and its only land border happens to be the most heavily fortified border in the world. Because of the constitutional crisis in which the nation finds itself, the president-elect will be the president-elect for... a few hours, at most. As in the U.S., South Korea normally has a roughly 2-month transition period between a presidential election and the commencement of a new administration. In this case, however, Lee will take office within hours of his victory being certified. Kim, incidentally, has already conceded.
Despite this election not really being a Trumpy candidate vs. non-Trumpy candidate situation, the White House is nonetheless clearly unhappy about the results, and declined to comment yesterday. Donald Trump wants a Nobel Peace Prize so badly he can taste it (they must smell like Big Macs), and he's keeping North Korea in his back pocket, if—as appears increasingly likely—he's not able to accomplish anything in Ukraine or Israel. The President would much rather have a South Korean president who is as simpatico with his worldview as is possible, and that is not what he got yesterday.
We also wrote about the Polish election yesterday; there's been a little news on that front. Recall that Poland now has a split government as president-elect Karol Nawrocki is of the far-right/populist Law and Justice Party (PiS) and prime minister Donald Tusk is of the less-far-right Civic Platform (PO). In response to Nawrocki's victory, Tusk has scheduled a vote of confidence in Parliament, which is meant to communicate: PO is unified and is still running the show, even if PiS now has the presidency. See, it's not just the U.S. legislature that likes to perform this sort of political theater, primarily for the benefit of political wonks. (Z)