People Power Party Shows Off... Lee Waves the One-Team Flag Proudly

First Official External Schedule with Lee Nak-yeon
Announcement of New Welfare Plan
Starting to Solidify Rising Approval Ratings

[Asia Economy Reporters Oh Ju-yeon and Jeon Jin-young] Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, has embraced the pledges of his primary rival, former party leader Lee Nak-yeon, and embarked on a ‘One Team’ approach. Recent polls show Lee’s support surpassing that of Yoon, suggesting he is now pushing to solidify a ‘golden cross’ lead.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 29th, Lee will visit the Korea Social Security Information Service in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, in the afternoon to unveil a new welfare vision titled ‘Quality of Life at Advanced Country Levels.’ Former leader Lee Nak-yeon will also attend, marking their first official joint external schedule. Lee Nak-yeon had previously signaled his return to the campaign by accepting the co-chair position of the National Vision and Integration Committee on the 23rd.

The new welfare vision is a signature pledge of former leader Lee Nak-yeon. It aims to expand universal welfare by broadly providing social services in areas such as healthcare, housing, and caregiving. Through this, the state can guarantee minimum and adequate standards for citizens’ living conditions. Although this vision clashed with Lee Jae-myung’s basic income proposal during the primaries, Lee has expressed willingness to adopt the new welfare vision after the primary.

The new welfare vision that Lee will announce this afternoon is expected to stem from this background. The New Welfare Committee under the campaign headquarters is also expected to gain momentum. Park Kwang-on, who served as the general director in Lee Nak-yeon’s camp, and Kim Yeon-myeong, former Blue House Senior Secretary for Social Affairs and known as a ‘mentor,’ serve as committee chairs.

Starting with this joint move, the ‘Myung-Nak Dream Team’ will begin full-scale activities, aiming to consolidate the Honam base that supports Lee Nak-yeon and to attract centrist support within the metropolitan area, thereby strengthening Lee Jae-myung’s campaign. The plan is to emphasize differentiation from the People Power Party, which is embroiled in internal conflicts, and to decisively outpace Yoon Seok-youl, whose support has recently declined, creating a clear ‘golden cross.’

Recent polls have shown Lee narrowing the gap with Yoon to within the margin of error and even overtaking him in some results.

In the poll released on this day, Lee overtook Yoon beyond the margin of error. According to a survey conducted by Hankil Research commissioned by Asia Economy (targeting 1,000 people aged 18 and over from the 25th to 27th, with a 95% confidence level and a ±3.1% margin of error), Yoon’s support dropped 6.9 percentage points from the previous survey (commissioned by Cookie News, conducted from the 11th to 13th) to 34.9%, while Lee’s support rose 1.8 percentage points to 42.4%. Detailed results and survey outlines can be found on the Central Election Poll Deliberation Commission website.

The Democratic Party campaign headquarters also plans to change Lee’s campaign slogan this afternoon, interpreted as an appeal to voters ahead of the year-end holidays and Lunar New Year.

A Democratic Party campaign official said, "It is still too early to call it a golden cross since the race is within the margin of error," but added, "The trend seems to be established," expressing optimism.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.