South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye was on Friday impeached by parliament amid a wave of protest which trailed her corruption scandal.
As hundreds of police formed a wall to hold back thousands of demonstrators outside the National Assembly in Seoul, lawmakers voted 234 to 56 in favor of impeachment, easily meeting the requirement for a two-thirds majority due to dozens of members of Park’s own ruling party voting against her.
Outside, protesters singing the Christmas carol “Feliz Navidad,” with the lyrics changed to “not Park Geun-hye,” broke into cheers and songs in a carnival atmosphere as the vote was announced. The result means Park is immediately suspended from power and the interim leadership passes to Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn.
South Korea’s first female president – and daughter of former dictator Park Chung-hee — fell as the wave of populism that fueled Brexit, scuttled Hillary Clinton’s presidential aspirations and toppled Italian leader Matteo Renzi reached Asia’s fourth-largest economy.
After weeks of mass protests near the presidential office, Koreans came from across the country to fill the boulevards around parliament in the freezing cold, demanding not only Park’s removal, but an end to the ties between the political and business elite that were once the bedrock of South Korea’s economic miracle.
“This will escalate the popular enthusiasm for reforms by another level,” said Kim Yun-cheol, who teaches political science at the Humanitas College of Kyung Hee University in Seoul. “Demand for experiments will intensify along with pressure on Park to resign. Simultaneously, a presidential race will accelerate, especially in the opposition, and that has the potential to shake the political landscape again.”
For months, prosecutors and opposition lawmakers have relentlessly pursued the ties between Park and her friend Choi Soon-sil and the links between the president’s office and the family-run chaebol conglomerates that dominate the economy. The stream of often lurid revelations swelled anger in the nation’s 50 million population, many of whom are suffering from widening inequality, soaring household debt, youth unemployment and a slump in the nation’s once-mighty steel mills and shipyards.
South Korea’s economy is projected to expand just 2.7 percent this year, marking the first five-year run of sub-3.5 percent growth since the 1950-53 Korean War.
Entering parliament before the vote, opposition politician Park Jie-won said the impeachment “will open a new era for Korea, an era where chaebol-politician ties are cut” and the government can focus on issues like “unification, youth unemployment, income gaps between rich and poor.”
Some protesters had traveled across the country to witness the vote. Others had camped out in front of the National Assembly building. In the morning, they waved placards against a clear, cold sky, announcing: “A great day for impeachment,” demanding “Dismantle the chaebols,” and warning the lawmakers, “We are watching you!”