People Power Party lawmaker Kwon Young-jin warned that "voting tomorrow could recreate the nightmare of the 2018 local elections" and urged former President Yoon Suk-yeol to exercise restraint following his message from detention.
"If we don't change now, we may miss our timing," Kwon emphasized during a CBS radio appearance Wednesday. In the 2018 local elections, the Liberty Korea Party (the predecessor of the People Power Party) suffered a crushing defeat, losing 16 of 18 metropolitan government seats except for Daegu mayor and North Gyeongsang Province governor.
Kwon, who recently led an apology for the December 3 martial law incident, said "from the conservative perspective, we essentially handed everything over to left-wing Lee Jae-myung for president," adding that "former President Yoon should also apologize for this."
Regarding Yoon's message from detention, Kwon strongly criticized: "The person who brought conservatives to the brink of annihilation and put the nation in a precarious and difficult situation—the person who was impeached and is now in detention—keeps telling people outside to unite and fight to protect the liberal democratic constitutional order. Is that helping us?"
"Rather, it becomes a tool that strengthens the Democratic Party and leftists' insurrection framing. Shouldn't he stay quiet and reflect?" Kwon added.
On internal party sentiment, Kwon said "nearly two-thirds believe an apology is necessary, and about half think we should sever ties with former President Yoon."
Responding to criticism that PPP Chairman Chang Dong-hyuk represents the party's hardcore supporters, Kwon said: "They think distancing from those people would collapse their support base, but that's actually not true. It's a delusion."
"Chairman Chang seems somewhat captive to those elements, and on the other hand, it's a question of whether moderates exist or not—Chairman Chang seems to believe there are no moderates," Kwon assessed.
"If we continue this way, we'll lose the election and our party will collapse, and the person who would be hit hardest is Chairman Chang. He said so himself," Kwon said. "This isn't a problem that can be solved by confronting the chairman. We will continue to communicate and persuade."
