The Liberal Democratic Party (PLD) to which Shinzo Abe, the former prime minister of Japan assassinated last Friday, belonged, confirmed this Sunday the forecasts together with his minor partner in the coalition, Komeito, and He won widely in the elections to the Upper House of Parliament of that Asian country.
The victory means a vote of confidence for the current prime minister, Fumio Kishida, amid rising inflation and the tense geopolitical situation. With this legislative strengtheningwill be able to govern without interruption until the elections scheduled for 2025.
The PLD won 63 seats, more than half of the 125 that were at stake in the elections. In this way, it increased its seats altogether in Parliament to 146, out of a total of 248, so hold a strong majority. They were the best electoral results of the ruling force since 2013.
This will allow Kishida to work on long-term policies such as national security, his still vague “new capitalism” economic policy, and his party’s long-held goal of amending the country’s post-war US-drafted pacifist constitution. .
An initiative for a change in the Constitution is now a possibility. With the help of two opposition parties that support the change, the ruling bloc now has the necessary proportion of wills to propose an amendment, and the possibility is real.
Kishida and senior members of the Liberal Democratic Party observed a minute’s silence in honor of Shinzo Abe. Photo EFE/EPA/Rodrigo Reyes Marin
Kishida and senior party members held a minute of silence in honor of Abe at the party’s electoral headquarters before placing paper roses on a white board next to the names of the candidates who won seats.
Abe, 67, was shot dead on Friday while making a campaign speech in the western city of Nara. He died of heavy bleeding from the gunshots.
He was the longest-serving political leader in Japan, doing so for two terms, and although he resigned in 2020, he had great influence in the LDP when he led its largest faction, the Seiwakai.
In person welcomed the important victory, but without smiling due to the tragic loss of Abe and the difficult task of unifying the party without him.
In interviews with the press on Sunday night, Kishida reiterated: “The unity of the party is more important than anything else.”
He further noted that responses to COVID-19, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and dealing with rising prices will be his priorities, and that he will insist on strengthening Japan’s national security, in addition to constitutional change.
Confirmed the comfortable victory, he met on Monday with the chief diplomat of the United States, Antony Blinken, who expressed his condolences for the death of the influential Abe and reiterated the firm alliance between the two countries.
Kishida warned that he will make Shinzo Abe’s unfinished tasks his own
In his first appearance after the electoral victory, Kishida assured that he will make the two main unfinished tasks of the late Shinzo Abe his own: the constitutional amendment and resolving the kidnappings of Japanese at the hands of North Korea.
The environment in Japan and the world “is changing rapidly and there are many problems. … I think Abe himself was the one who regretted it the most,” Kishida said from the LDP headquarters.
Shinzo Abe was killed while giving a speech in Nara, western Japan, last Friday. Photo REUTERS
“The problems that he could not solve I will make mine”said the current Japanese ruler, among which he highlighted the issue of kidnappings and the reform of the Constitution, long sought by Abe and which could be facilitated after the electoral result.
Kishida was pleased with the results: “Our objective was to secure the majority and we have surpassed it“. They did it by achieving a larger margin than in the previous elections three years earlier, which he interprets as a sign that the Japanese “see that we are entering a turning point” and “are entrusting them with the future of the country”.
Among the pending tasks that they have been entrusted to channel, Kishida mentioned the growing inflation, which is affecting food and energy above all, and also referred to the new strategy on defense policy that the Government must prepare by the end of the year and with which it seeks to increase its military capabilities.
“We will not eliminate any options, but we will assess them realistically,” Kishida said, at a time when defense policies have become especially important due to the invasion of Ukraine.
Another of the great pending projects is the reform of the Japanese Manga Letter. The revision “has been one of the items on the LDP’s agenda since its establishment,” said Kishida, who said they hope “accelerate the beginning of the process to propose the constitutional amendment” and win sufficient public support for its passage in the course of parliamentary deliberations.
After the last elections, the parties in favor of the revision of the Constitution add 177 seats in the Upper House, above the two thirds (166) necessary to propose it.
With information from EFE, AP and EFE.
ES