Democracy questioned in South Korea:
On Tuesday this week at 10:30pm the South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law across the country claiming it was to overcome “anti-state forces” among his domestic political opponents.
This action took the whole country by shock, handing all democratic power across the country to the South Korean Military.
Martial law gives extra powers to the state military and in any cases ceases civil rights for civilians. This is the first time in 50 years martial law has been used in South Korea and it led to thousands heading to the streets to protest into the night.
Opposition members rushed to parliament to pass an opposing vote and put a halt to martial law. Bizarrely due to parliament being blocked off by the military, members of parliament were seen jumping fences to access the vote.
The vote passed and martial law was declared null, which although unsuccessful, is an embarrassing attempt of desperation from the South Korean President. There have now been calls for potential impeachment and he is seen as being ‘undemocratic’ from all sides of the political spectrum.
A Lack of Confidence in Barnier’s Budget:
In other news, the French have also had a political mishap, just months after a shock split election. This week French Prime Minister Michel Barnier suffered a vote of no confidence from his parliament, causing his resignation from his position.
In France the president sits above and chooses the prime minister, who is not elected. This year’s parliamentary election saw a win for the New Popular Front, a left-wing socialist coalition who were seen as the underdogs of the election.
However, they did not win a majority and instead, have formed a split government between the far right, far left and centralist parties.
To ‘appeal to all’, Macron elected Barnier, a conservative old guard who has held a range of cabinet positions in the past. However, this week he pushed forward an extremely controversial budget which was coined as ‘toxic to the French people’ by Le pen.
Shockingly, both the left wing NPF and the far-right RN party joined forces to oust Barnier, after only 3 months in the job. Macron is now under pressure to elect a new prime minister as the French Government is currently collapsed and with both sides of the political spectrum up in arms, Macron may be looking at a tough couple years ahead.
Murder and Manhunt in New York:
A mention must be made to the mysterious assassination of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson this week in New York. The ‘camera savvy’ gunman managed to disappear from the scene after waiting outside the Hilton Hotel in Manhattan for Thompson and then shooting him dead.
The bullet casings had the words ‘Deny’ and ‘Delay’ on them, which many believe is in reference to a book titled ‘Delay, Deny, Defend’, written about how big pharma companies avoid paying patient’s claims.
This most likely was a politically based shooting about the impact health insurance companies have on the ill and injured of America.
The NYPD are continuing their investigation into the assassination and currently have no new leads on the suspect.
That’s all for this weeks global political breakdown, stay tuned for the next update as situations across the world continue to unravel.
