People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok on the 26th, eight days before the June 3 local elections, appealed for support, saying, "Each and every vote you give to the People Power Party will be the most certain choice to protect my home, my shop, and my paycheck."
At a press conference at the party headquarters in Yeouido that day, Jang said it was "the last chance to correct the arrogance and ignorance of the Lee Jae-myung administration and stop economic collapse and a breakdown in livelihoods," and stated accordingly.
Jang said, "The public's anger that we must judge the arrogance and runaway of the Lee Jae-myung administration is flaring up across the country," adding, "The 'three highs' hell of high inflation, high interest rates, and a high exchange rate has become everyday life. While one side is throwing a 600 million won performance-bonus party, the other is wandering around looking for a 6,000 won diner."
He went on, "Jobs for young people have disappeared, and breadwinners' jobs are only precarious," arguing, "The yellow envelope law, a new labor law aimed at strengthening the bargaining rights of subcontract workers, various economic bad laws, and anti-business policies that only read the room of aristocratic unions have undermined the basic strength of Korea's economy."
He continued, "Kim Yong-beom, the senior presidential secretary for policy at the Blue House who directs the Lee Jae-myung administration's economic policy, says that while people are barely surviving day to day, we should endure because it is the friction sound of a leap. He says that finding it hard to make ends meet is the expense of success, so we should change our frame of perception," and criticized, "If the public's cry for livelihoods sounds like the expense of success, the Lee Jae-myung administration is living in a different world from the people."
Jang also zeroed in on alleged misconduct and ethics issues involving Democratic Party candidates. He said, "In Seoul, Cancun's Chong Won-o is covering up a shameful past of drunken assault with May 18; in Busan, Cartier's Chun Jae-soo is having police cover up the Unification Church bribery case," and added, "In Incheon, Park Chan-daejang-dong; in Ulsan, Mr. Lend Kim Sang-uk; in Gyeonggi Province, the mother of conservatives Choo Mi-ae; in Gangwon Province, Hongje-dong's Woo Sang-ho; in South Gyeongsang Province, the master of fabrication Kim Kyeong-soo."
Addressing the controversy over disparaging May 18 at Starbucks, he said, "Unable to forget memories of having fun with mad cow disease, THAAD, and Fukushima, they are once again agitating the public by making Starbucks a scapegoat," arguing, "People are on the verge of even losing the freedom to choose a cup of coffee. This is precisely Lee Jae-myung's politics of fear."
In a subsequent Q&A, asked about Democratic Party floor leader Han Byung-do's criticism that Chairperson Jang's rhetoric was too harsh, Jang said, "People can judge for themselves whether my remarks are harsher or Lee Jae-myung's," and shot back, "If they are worried because my remarks are harsh, Democratic Party candidates would have to say Lee Jae-myung should go to the moon for a bit."
Regarding arguments that a single candidacy should be achieved with the Reform Party and independent candidates in the local elections and by-elections, he kept his words brief, saying, "I intend to support the candidates working hard on their campaigns."