People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok and floor leader Jeong Jeom-sik are taking markedly different approaches to running the party. Jang has focused on street-level activism and a party-member-first line aimed at rallying the base, while Jeong has been broadening his contacts with Assembly members and placing greater weight on gathering intraparty opinion and widening the party's appeal.
Jeong met with senior PPP lawmakers at the National Assembly on Monday morning and afterward told reporters that the lawmakers' general view was that the party "cannot give up" on a special prosecutor recommended by the opposition. He said they also raised doubts about whether it was appropriate to enter negotiations on organizing the Assembly under current circumstances.
On the Assembly organization talks, Jeong said he believed senior lawmakers and other members were likely aligned in their thinking. He said a final decision would be made after hearing members' views at a full caucus meeting.
Since taking office, Jeong has held a series of meetings with two-term and senior lawmakers to canvass opinion across the party. He has also lunched with lawmakers aligned with former party leader Han Dong-hoon — a faction that had kept its distance from the leadership — in what observers describe as a deliberate effort to reach across factional lines.
Jang, by contrast, has placed more emphasis on activities outside the Assembly. At a meeting with senior lawmakers in February, calls were raised for the party to cut ties with former President Yoon Suk Yeol and change its direction, but assessments suggest Jang's overall stance has not shifted significantly since then.
"Even after offering various pieces of advice to Rep. Jang, there has been no change in direction, so occasions to meet are becoming fewer," one senior lawmaker said. A two-term lawmaker added that staying close to a leadership that faces recurring calls to resign "can be a burden."
Since a ballot shortage marred the June 3 local elections, Jang has focused on demanding a by-election and waging a public opinion campaign outside the Assembly. He has visited Olympic Park in Seoul multiple times and held youth forums across the country targeting voters in their 20s and 30s. On Sunday, he directly emphasized the "party-member-centered party" vision, a move seen as an effort to consolidate the core base.
Within and outside the party, some observers read the two leaders' approaches as pulling in different directions. Jang's push for a "party-member-centered party" came shortly after an interview in which Jeong said the PPP must transform into a "party of the people." The two also showed a difference in tone on internal disciplinary action: Jang called for "strict measures," while Jeong said any action must be "at a level that party members, lawmakers and the public can all accept."
The PPP leadership, however, drew a line against political circles' interpretation that there was discord between the two. Chief spokesperson Park Sung-hoon told reporters at the National Assembly on Monday that a political party is "a political association that, grounded in the will of its members, gathers and realizes the will of the people," and that a party centered on members and a party centered on the people "are not fundamentally opposing concepts." He said he had confirmed that Jang and Jeong "have no disagreement on this point."
mp1256@heraldcorp.com
