The People Power Party (PPP) declared it will not cooperate on National Assembly committee formation with the Democratic Party (DP), reaffirming its hardline stance. However, opinions are spreading within the party that it should shift to a "parliamentary struggle" due to public pressure over the legislative deadlock. The Democratic Party announced it will convene an extraordinary session in July.
The PPP held a roughly two-hour general meeting of lawmakers at the National Assembly on Wednesday and confirmed this consensus among its members. Floor leader Jeong Jeom-sik met with reporters after the meeting and said, "The conclusion is that we cannot cooperate on committee formation under these conditions." He added, "We have no choice but to move forward through a stronger struggle." Criticizing the Democratic Party for ultimately taking the chairmanship of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, he said, "They are being so stubborn in order to pass a 'special prosecutor bill for the withdrawal of indictment' aimed at canceling President Lee Jae-myung's trial."
"Our party cannot agree to the Democratic Party's first round of committee formation, in which it unilaterally took 11 standing committees, including the chairmanship of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee," Jeong stressed. "We have no intention of cooperating on committee formation going forward." Kim Seung-soo, the PPP's chief deputy floor leader for operations, also described the atmosphere of the general meeting, saying, "There were many opinions, mainly from first-term lawmakers, that we should wage a strong struggle without an exit strategy."
Although the meeting concluded in favor of a "hardline struggle," it is understood that there were also considerable opinions, mainly from senior lawmakers, that the party should shift its stance to parliamentary negotiations. A senior lawmaker from the Yeongnam region, who was the first to take the podium, said, "It is painful to concede and accept seven standing committee chairmanships without the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, but shouldn't we still carry out our legislative activities?" according to a meeting attendee. A first-term lawmaker said, "There was an opinion at the meeting that 'wouldn't it be better to go to the Assembly and fight hard there instead?'" A total of 10 lawmakers spoke at the meeting, and they generally focused on delivering their own arguments in a calm atmosphere.
With the final direction of parliamentary negotiations left to the party leadership, the PPP's floor leadership is expected to review the overall negotiation direction, taking into account the opinions from the general meeting. Within the party, there is a sense that it has become difficult to justify maintaining a "combat mode" indefinitely, given that the Democratic Party did not monopolize all 18 standing committees but allocated seven to the PPP according to seat proportions, including preferred committees such as the Land Committee and the Trade, Industry, Energy, SMEs and Startups Committee. In particular, some argue that with major undertakings such as the government's "three mega projects" underway, it would be preferable to engage in policy competition within the Assembly rather than a struggle outside it. However, with considerable voices calling for a hardline response, the outlook is that finding common ground in committee formation negotiations will not be easy anytime soon.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party declared it will convene an extraordinary session in July regardless of the PPP's boycott stance. Han Byeong-do, the Democratic Party's floor leader, expressed his determination to convene the July extraordinary session at a policy coordination meeting that day, saying, "We will first hold meetings for at least the 11 standing committees whose chairs have been elected to address urgent livelihood issues."
