Lee Jun-seok "Unification with Ahn? 'Regaining Support from 2030 Generation' Is More Important"

Lee Jun-seok, the leader of the People Power Party, is answering questions from reporters after paying respects at the April 3rd Peace Park in Bonggae-dong, Jeju City, on the afternoon of the 1st.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Seoyoung] Lee Jun-seok, leader of the People Power Party, expressed a negative opinion on the unification of Yoon Seok-yeol, the People Power Party's presidential candidate, and Ahn Cheol-soo, the People Party's presidential candidate.

On the 2nd, Lee said in an interview with MBN, "Even without unification, if precise tactics are employed for the generational encirclement theory and generational coalition theory, Candidate Yoon can regain his support base." The generational encirclement theory mentioned by Lee refers to the strategy where the People Power Party secures the support of the 2030 generation, thereby also drawing support from their parents' generation.

Lee stated, "The reason Ahn's support base appears to temporarily expand within the 2030 generation is because the 2030s are dissatisfied with Candidate Yoon," and questioned, "Paradoxically, even if unification is done under Candidate Yoon, will the support that went to Candidate Ahn come back to Candidate Yoon?" He continued, "The 2030 support base was firmly aligned with the People Power Party throughout 2021," but expressed concern that "due to incomprehensible talent recruitment and the strategy of Yoon's core associates (Yoonhakkwan) that 'the 2030s are the home base,' the 2030 support base is not only completely devastated but is even persuading others to oppose our candidate."

Lee said, "Unification is only possible on the premise that we can obviously defeat Candidate Ahn and absorb his support," adding, "A month ago, there was no need for Candidate Ahn," and criticized, "Suddenly unifying because you don't want to lose the election is an absurd strategy." He emphasized, "We need to review the past month, reflect on what went wrong, and then decide whether to unify or integrate," and raised his voice in criticism, saying, "Thinking of simply adding numbers without measures against leakage is difficult for the public to support, as they are not fools."

On the same day, regarding his return to the campaign committee, Lee drew a line by saying, "I have no intention of joining at all. Sitting in a powerless position is a disgrace." Regarding the decline in Candidate Yoon's approval ratings, he diagnosed, "If the candidate's approval rating drops by about 15 percentage points in a month, someone must take responsibility," and added, "But since no one talks about this as a problem or takes responsibility, all the responsibility falls on the candidate."

Lee emphasized, "The campaign committee is usually reorganized two or three times during the election process. It can be done now," and said, "Even ten days before the election, things that need fixing should be fixed." Regarding the remaining variable in approval ratings, he pointed to the TV debate with Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party's presidential candidate, predicting, "If we show policy understanding and debate skills that exceed the expectations of our people, we will win easily; if we show a worse performance, it will be a difficult election."

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