Emergency forum hosted by Reps. Yoon Sang-hyun, Yoo Eui-dong and Choi Hyung-doo examines new conservative direction after local election losses
"The people have constantly demanded that we become an alternative force capable of delivering change, innovation, unity and the defense of liberal democracy — but we have not responded adequately." — Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun
People Power Party lawmakers Yoon Sang-hyun, Yoo Eui-dong and Choi Hyung-doo hosted an emergency forum Thursday at the National Assembly Members' Office Building to assess the June 3 local elections and chart a path forward for the party, discussing the tasks ahead for rebuilding conservatism.
The forum was organized to humbly accept the public sentiment revealed in the local elections and to explore what vision and values the People Power Party must embrace to regain voter trust in a shifting political landscape.
Yoon, who chaired the session, said in his opening remarks that "the defeat in the June 3 local elections was a foreseeable outcome," adding that the party had stayed silent on too many issues even as that defeat loomed. "We must be angry at ourselves for that cowardly silence," he said.
He said that "living without anger and grief over the party means not loving the party," and called for the courage to confront the public's voice head-on rather than the complacency that turns away from reality.
"Our party right now is far too quiet — like the peace of a graveyard," Yoon said. "The People Power Party must commit to a complete reinvention, starting from its very foundations. Rebuilding conservatism is not a matter of swapping out a few individuals — it means rebuilding the party's philosophy, its direction and its vision for the future."
On the identity of conservatism, he said the history of South Korean conservatism is one of forging the Korea-US alliance, achieving industrialization and building a top-10 global economy. "The People Power Party must now evolve beyond a conservatism that merely preserves, into a conservatism that creates — one that improves people's lives and designs the nation's future," he said.
Kim Hyung-jun, a distinguished professor at Pai Chai University, presented a paper titled "Conditions and Outlook for Conservative Rebuilding: Focused on Party Realignment Theory." Lee Sang-il, former vice president of the Yeouido Institute, joined as a discussant. Together they held an in-depth discussion on the challenges facing the conservative camp after the local elections and the direction of a new conservative platform.
Participants agreed that the party must humbly accept the public will expressed through the local elections. They also agreed that genuine reflection, innovation and the establishment of a new conservative direction — one that builds a future vision on the essential values of conservatism — are needed to restore public trust.
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