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"Naeronambul"
translates to "If I do it, it's a romance. If you do it, it's
adultery."
The taunt began ringing in Democrats' ears last year, and they
heard it a lot while campaigning for mayoral elections in Seoul
and Busan this week, contests they lost by embarrassing margins.
Limited to one term in office, Moon enters his last year with a
majority in parliament, but his government has made damaging
policy missteps.
And many voters have been angered by perceived hypocrisy over
graft and sex abuse scandals in a party that came to power in
2017 vowing to clean up politics after Moon's conservative
predecessor, Park Geun-hye, was impeached and jailed in a
corruption case.
Runaway home prices and deepening inequality have also
contributed to popularity ratings plummeting to record lows for
both Moon and his party in recent months.
That could jeopardise Moon's efforts to achieve final policy
goals, including reforming a prosecutor's office that his party
views as too powerful and too politicised.
Scandals over party members accused of amassing wealth and
abusing power to secure favours for their family have left the
Democrats in need of an image make-over before next year's
national elections.
"Moral superiority had long been the liberals' strength over the
conservatives who were often embroiled in corruption scandals,"
said a 46-year-old voter who only gave her surname Shin.
"But the Democrats' 'naeronambul' attitude has become so
prevalent, and combined with their total economic disaster, no
way would I vote for them."
"QUAGMIRE OF NAERONAMBUL"
The national election commission went so far as to ban the use
of terms like “naeronambul” and "hypocrisy" in election slogans
saying it was linked too specifically to one party, prompting
the conservative opposition to mockingly declare that the agency
officially recognised the ruling party is hypocritical.
The Democratic Party's interim chief apologised on Friday for
"people's anger and disappointments," saying it would strive to
"claw out of the quagmire of naeronambul as soon as possible."
The term first began to be widely used last year when
then-Justice Minister Cho Kuk, one of Moon's closest confidants
and a well-known critic of corrupt officials, resigned only a
month after taking office amid a scandal over falsifying
documents on family investments and illicitly securing
university admissions for his children. He has denied
wrongdoing.
Sex scandals embroiled the Democratic mayors of Seoul - who was
found dead after being accused of sexual harassment - and Busan,
which left both seats open to be seized by conservatives in
Wednesday's elections.
Home prices in Seoul, meanwhile, have surged more than 50% since
2017, the fastest pace in the world, according to statistics
site Numbeo, generating widespread economic anger.
The soaring property prices and political scandals collided
earlier this year when employees of a state housing developer,
politicians and other officials were accused of insider land
trading, and Moon fired a senior aide after he was found to have
raised rent on a property just before curbs were introduced.
Younger generations and politically neutral voters have
especially expressed disgust over the "naeronambul" traits. Vote
counts showed that 72.5% of men in their twenties voted for the
opposition candidate for Seoul mayor, more than three times the
22.2% who supported the Democrat contender.
"The public sentiment over the administration's morality might
deepen given ongoing scandals and various investigations," said
Kim Hyung-joon, a political science professor at Myongji
University in Seoul. "And that could expedite Moon's lame-duck
status, and possibly bring a policy vacuum before the election."
(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
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