▲ People Power Party Leader Jang Dong-hyeok in deep thought
The approval rating of the People Power Party (PPP) continues to slide despite a series of unfavorable issues facing the ruling bloc.
Factors disadvantageous to the government and the ruling party persist, such as extreme stock market volatility driven by the so-called rollercoaster KOSPI situation, a property market showing simultaneous surges across purchase prices, jeonse (lump-sum deposits), and wolse (monthly rent), and the pushed-through abolition of the prosecution's supplementary investigation rights despite majority public opposition. Nevertheless, the opposition party's approval rating has regressed to levels seen before the local elections.
This is interpreted as the result of the main opposition PPP failing to draw attention as an alternative force, continuing in a state of paralysis as it failed to produce proper reform momentum following its local election defeat, with debates surrounding Leader Jang Dong-hyeok's future even subsiding.
Amid this situation, as Leader Jang is expected to soon unveil a blueprint to reform the party centered around party members and further accelerate his rightward shift, observations are even emerging that the party's drift could be prolonged.
According to the National Barometer Survey (NBS) released on July 30, the PPP's party support rating stood at 21%, down 1 percentage point compared to the previous survey.
The PPP's approval rating stood at 18% in the third week of May before the local elections, jumped to 25% in the second week of June immediately after the elections, but has since shown a shrinking trend again, recording 20% in the first week of July, 22% in the third week of July, and 21% in the last week of July.
By age group, Democratic Party support led across all generations. Looking at regions and ideological leanings, the PPP (32%) only narrowly edged out the Democratic Party (30%) within the margin of error in Daegu and Gyeongsangbuk-do, the traditional conservative stronghold.
In particular, only 49% of respondents who identified as conservative supporters answered that they support the PPP, showing that it is being shunned even by a significant number of conservative voters.
Furthermore, among moderate voters, who serve as a barometer for expanding political reach, the PPP's approval rating dropped from 22% (second week of June) to 13%.
This contrasts with the Democratic Party's approval rating, which actually edged up from 36% to 38% despite various unfavorable issues.
Leader Jang, who has been operating outside the party since the local elections by participating in protests over issues like the alleged infringement of voting rights, plans to release party reform proposals around Liberation Day ahead of his one-year anniversary in office.
Ahead of the lawmakers' seminar (scheduled for August 27–28), the reform proposals are reportedly set to include measures to realize a "party-member-centered party," as Leader Jang revealed during the first meeting of the "Task Force on Innovation of Evaluation for Elected Public Officials" on July 28.
As Leader Jang remarked, "When nominating elected public officials, it is necessary to nominate people who 'fight well' in accordance with those standards," criteria regarding this are also expected to be included.
Leader Jang's vision appears to be aimed at effectively retaking control of the party.
In connection with this, the leadership is reportedly planning to organize an intra-party consultative body immediately after announcing the reform proposals to streamline reform tasks, revise the party constitution and platform as early as around November, and based on this, establish plans for recruiting talent, operating the Organization Reinforcement Special Committee, and conducting party audits to reorganize local chapters.
Such a vision by Leader Jang runs counter to the Pro-Han (pro-Han Dong-hoon) faction, the young reformist faction, and Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon's camp, who belong to the anti-Jang Dong-hyeok faction, as well as old mainstream Floor Leader Jeong Jeom-sik's theory of a people-centered party.
Consequently, concerns are rising within the party that if Leader Jang pushes ahead with the party-member-centered party theory, the gap with public sentiment will widen further.
Moreover, some observations suggest that Leader Jang's announcement of reform proposals could ignite a full-scale struggle over political lines and party leadership.
The poll cited in the report was conducted by Embrain Public, Kstat Research, Korea Research, and Hankook Research from July 27 to 29 through telephone interviews using mobile virtual numbers (100%) targeting 1,000 people aged 18 and older.
For further details, refer to the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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