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PPP floor leader knocks DP chief's economic proposals ahead of Yoon talks

Published: 23 Apr. 2024, 19:09

MICHAEL LEE
[email protected]

People Power Party floor leader Yun Jae-ok speaks at a meeting of the party's lawmakers at the National Assembly on Tuesday morning. [YONHAP]

Conservative People Power Party (PPP) floor leader Yun Jae-ok on Tuesday called on rival Democratic Party (DP) leader Lee Jae-myung to propose “more effective measures” to stimulate the economy in his upcoming talks with President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Lee promised before the April 10 general election that his party would distribute 250,000 won ($181) to every person to jump-start the country’s slowing economy.

In a meeting with PPP lawmakers at the National Assembly, Yun said he believes that there are “better proposals that the people want to see discussed” by the president and the DP leader.

However, the PPP floor leader also noted that Yoon had set “no constraints” on the topics he is open to discussing with Lee, whose party won a landslide majority of 175 seats in the 300-member National Assembly in the April 10 general election.

Yun is serving as his party’s interim leader until the party holds a new leadership contest. His predecessor, Han Dong-hoon, stepped down after the PPP and its satellite party won only 108 seats.

The PPP floor leader also said that small business owners and self-employed individuals are “hoping the meeting between the president and the DP leader will lead to bipartisan cooperation” and “address tangible issues, such as inflation.”

Yun criticized the DP leader’s stimulus plan as a “populist policy” that could aggravate inflation.

“The majority of economic experts agree that an excessive fiscal stimulus could prolong inflation and the people’s suffering,” Yun said, noting that the DP leader’s stimulus plan would add 13 trillion won to the existing national debt of 1,127 trillion won ($817 billion).

The same day, DP lawmakers forwarded two contentious bills to a plenary session of the National Assembly after PPP lawmakers boycotted a parliamentary national policy committee meeting.

One bill would allow franchisees to exercise collective bargaining rights against franchisors, while the other would recognize more people as meritorious democracy activists.

Both motions were approved for consideration by the plenary session after PPP members left the committee meeting in protest.

The DP plans to use its current majority in the National Assembly to pass the bills before the new legislature convenes in June.

Meanwhile, PPP spokesman Jung Hee-yong said on Tuesday that an emergency steering committee will manage the party until it is ready to hold a national convention to elect new permanent leadership.

The spokesman added that the party’s leaders agreed the convention should take place “as soon as possible” without specifying a timeframe.

Four-term PPP lawmaker Na Kyung-won said Yun will be in charge of selecting the chief of the emergency steering committee, adding that the party’s temporary caretaker should “ideally be someone who has served five or more terms as a lawmaker.”

BY MICHAEL LEE [[email protected]]