The floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, Park Chan-dae, criticized President Yoon Suk-yeol’s absence from the government policy speech, calling him the “worst president imaginable in a democratic republic.” Park noted that this is the first time in 11 years since 2013 that a president did not attend this speech, with the Prime Minister reading it instead.
Park also pointed out that President Yoon did not attend the 22nd National Assembly’s opening ceremony in September and is now absent from discussions about next year’s budget cooperation, labeling him as cowardly and shameless.
Regarding the administration’s 2025 budget outline revealed in the speech, Park criticized it as a “tax cut budget for the wealthy, far removed from public welfare,” despite the government’s use of rhetoric.
He mentioned that while President Yoon’s speech, read by the Prime Minister, claimed that the country faced significant challenges over the past two and a half years, it overlooked the public’s sleepless nights due to alleged corruption scandals involving the president and his wife.
Furthermore, Park denounced Yoon’s claim that the economy and public welfare are improving as a brazen and oblivious self-praise that ignores the suffering reality of the people.
He pointed out that financial policies, like the reduction of inheritance tax rates that benefit the wealthy, deteriorate public finances, while cuts are made in public disaster safety and free high school education. Park vowed that the Democratic Party would correct this in the National Assembly’s budget review, advocating for increased support for local economy vouchers, public safety projects, child allowances, and funding for free education to boost livelihoods and the economy in the 2025 budget.