Lee Jae-myung promised to “unite the people” in his inauguration speech on Wednesday just hours after taking over the South Korean presidency.
With 49.4% decisive rejection of his competitor, Kim Moon-soo, who comes from the same party as ousted president Yoon Suk Yeol, the 61-year-old won a snap election.
After trying to impose martial law, which finally led to his impeachment, Yoon set off months of political anarchy.
Lee now has the difficult chore of not only uniting the nation but also juggling ties with its most crucial ally, the US, under President Trump’s erratic style of diplomacy when he takes on the top post.
He also promised to create a “flexible, pragmatic government” and declared that an emergency economic task group will “activate immediately”.
From investigations into claimed corruption to family conflicts, this is an amazing return for a man entangled in multiple political scandals; however experts and officials say his success was a clear capitalization of public discontent.
“This election reflected public demand to properly restore democratic values in addition to a judgment on that.”
Woo declared that the outcome was “a fair reflection of the will of the people” and “clearly expressed the people’s intent”.
Park Sung-min, president of Min Consulting, concurred that voters were reacting to what they regarded as a collapse of democracy rather than “necessarily expressing strong support for Lee’s agenda”.
“The election became a vehicle for expressing outrage… [and] was a clear rebuff of the ruling party, which had been complicit in or directly responsible for the martial law measures,” he remarked.
On Wednesday, hundreds of Lee fans assembled in front of parliament in an attempt to catch a sight of the president; many of them expressed great excitement about what he would do.
“I think he will fulfill his fundamental pledges—that of building a fair society. I want South Korea to be a nation where those who do wrongs face legal repercussions and laws are applied as pledged with the people. I am rather high in expectations.
Another Lee admirer, Yoo Gi-won, claimed that “Yoon’s presidency made me feel as though the nation will be destroyed. I observed everyone around me struggling”.
“For a while South Korea has been cold place [but now] I’m so, so happy.” he said.
But Lee will be confronting a difficult reality once the excitement subsides.
First of all, he is still under trial in the Supreme Court on allegations of election law breaking. To prevent meddling, the court delayed the trial until following the election as a conviction would have prevented Lee from contesting.
Though the law states sitting presidents cannot be tried for criminal offences, with exception of rebellion or treason, it is unclear what happens should Lee be found guilty.
Greater still is his difficulty uniting a country still rife with intense resentment and division.
“Years of escalating polarisation under both the [previous] Moon and Yoon administrations have left South Korea’s political landscape bitterly divided,” Mr Park remarked.
“Lee may speak of national unity, but he faces a great dilemma: how to pursue accountability for what many view as an attempted revolution without deepening the very divisions he seeks to heal.”.
For his anti-feminist opinions, which have reminded some of Yoon, under whose equality for women became a divisive topic, he has been extremely popular among many young males.
Drawn in part by candidates like Lee Jun-seok, young men in their 30s came out in more than usual to vote this time.
Voter turnout this year, the largest since 1997, resulted from those seeking to hold the PPP-led government responsible as well as those wishing to guarantee Lee Jae-myung’s reign was shattered.
And thus it is in this political environment Lee takes over, trying to turn popular wrath into hope.
Closely monitored will be his actions and if – and how – he might achieve that.
