The People Power Party has begun a livelihood-focused push ahead of the Chuseok holiday. As the government and the ruling party concentrate on abolishing the prosecution service and judicial reform, the party aims to sway holiday public sentiment by launching a public campaign criticizing those policies. Having wrapped up one round of a fight against the ruling bloc through a filibuster and rallies outside the Assembly, the party also signaled an intention to establish itself as an alternative force.
On the 30th, People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok held a news conference urging measures to address small-business losses stemming from the fire at the Daejeon National Information Resources Service. He called on the government to swiftly resolve the damage suffered by small businesses after post office systems and others were paralyzed ahead of Chuseok.
Jang said, "The government's incompetence and complacency have ruined even the peak-season business for small merchants. The government has turned the peak season into a disaster," adding, "It must disclose detailed plans on what sectors suffered what kinds of damage and on what scale, and how it will compensate the public for their losses."
At the party policy committee level, it held an emergency meeting in response to the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, which will launch next month. It was a forum criticizing that shifting national energy policy to the Environment Ministry, a regulatory agency, will shake the energy industry and raise electricity rates.
At the response meeting on the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, Jang said, "The unprecedented speed race in the organizational reshuffle pushed by the Lee Jae-myung government and the Democratic Party of Korea is only heightening anxiety that makes us worry about the future, rather than expectations for the launch of a new ministry," adding, "The People Power Party will not back down an inch on the path of protecting livelihoods and industry."
Song Eon-seok, the party's floor leader, also said, "One of the biggest problems with the government reorganization is that it has split the nuclear power industry in two," stressing, "Transferring nuclear plant construction and operation to the Environment Ministry while letting only the Industry Ministry handle nuclear exports clearly appears to be a signal of 'anti-nuclear power season 2.'"
The People Power Party held a total of seven policy seminars by lawmakers' offices over the course of the day. The topics—such as the Arctic sea route, stablecoins, the dismantling of the Defense Security Command, and medical innovation—touched on policies of the Lee Jae-myung government or the livelihood economy. The party leadership also actively attended lawmakers' seminars to provide support.
The People Power Party shifted to a livelihood and policy push in step with the end of its filibuster (a lawful obstruction of proceedings through unlimited debate) the day before. It appears influenced by the judgment that a filibuster has limited effect in blocking the ruling party's legislation and that it cannot indefinitely hold rallies outside the Assembly. The leadership's visits the previous day to the Korea Financial Investment Association and the World Korean Community Leaders Convention, and its convening of a policy general assembly of lawmakers to urge the resumption of President Lee Jae-myung's trial, were in the same vein.
Inside the People Power Party, some assess that criticizing government policies is the better strategy. A People Power Party lawmaker said, "If we built a united front through the filibuster and outdoor rallies, it is also important to effectively inform the public of the problems of the Lee Jae-myung government and the ruling party," adding, "With policy competition likely to begin in earnest from the end of the year ahead of the local elections, we need to move strategically."
A source in the floor leadership said, "We have been holding successive policy general meetings of lawmakers, and we plan to hold several more in-party seminars and forums to publicize the problems of the government and the ruling party," adding, "We will also focus on exposing the government's problems in the upcoming National Assembly audits."