Lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties welcomed President Lee Jae-myung as he visited the National Assembly to explain a supplementary budget bill totaling 2.62 trillion won. In November last year, five months earlier, the People Power Party, the main opposition, boycotted his policy speech, resulting in a "half policy speech," but this time both sides greeted Lee as the People Power Party decided to attend.
Lee visited the National Assembly on the afternoon of the 2nd for a policy speech on the supplementary budget bill. Ahead of the speech scheduled for 2 p.m., lawmakers of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea filled the main chamber early. Lawmakers of the People Power Party entered at about 2:06 p.m. After deciding in a closed-door general meeting to attend the speech, its lawmakers entered the chamber all at once.
Lee entered at about 2:10 p.m. after the chamber settled down. Democratic Party lawmakers rose from their seats and applauded until Lee reached the podium. Along the aisle to the podium, Democratic Party lawmakers lined up to shake hands with Lee.
◇ "Crisis" mentioned 28 times in a 15-minute speech
For a little over 15 minutes, Lee explained why drafting a supplementary budget is urgent. The word he mentioned most in the policy speech was "crisis." Lee said "crisis" 28 times, opening and closing his address with the term.
The next most-mentioned word was "economy," at 17 times, and "people" was cited 16 times. He also mentioned "energy" nine times, indicating that this supplementary budget is focused on overcoming difficulties caused by the Middle East war.
When Lee emphasized overcoming the crisis during the speech, Democratic Party lawmakers applauded for several seconds.
After finishing the speech, Lee shook hands one by one with People Power Party lawmakers. While People Power Party leaders, including Jang Dong-hyeok, left first, a fair number of People Power Party lawmakers waited at their seats to shake hands with Lee. Some lawmakers spoke at length with Lee and Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik. In particular, lawmaker Joo Ho-young spoke with Lee for quite a while with a grave expression.