Justice Party to push for massive overhaul to win back public support

All News 07:00 September 10, 2022

By Kim Na-young

SEOUL, Sept. 10 (Yonhap) -- The minor progressive Justice Party (JP) will adopt a resolution later this month pledging a massive overhaul of itself to win back the minds of the people, officials said Saturday.

The resolution will be adopted on Sept. 17 and the party will form a new leadership next month to push earnestly for a set of reform measures, party officials said.

The move comes as the party's popularity has shown few signs of recovering from record low approval ratings, a stark contrast with just a few years ago when it even outstripped the then main opposition party by championing liberal agenda, such as labor rights and social welfare.

In April, the party was also voted as the most unlikable political party in South Korea and suffered a crushing defeat in June's local elections, failing to win any mayoral, governor or ward office and county head seats.

Its popularity fell below 3 percent in a Realmeter poll conducted in the fourth week of August.

As part of efforts to overcome the crisis, the party has introduced a motion calling for the mass resignation of all five of its lawmakers holding proportional representation seats as part of reform measures, but it was voted down at a party referendum held earlier this month.

"The biggest reason for the Justice Party's crisis is that it lost its identity as a liberal party and became more like a second unit of the DP," political commentator Rhee Jong-hoon said, noting that the Democratic Party (DP) has moved to the left, making it harder for the JP to "differentiate" from the DP.

Rhee also said the JP has recently focused too much on feminism, still a divided issue in South Korea, and a series of sexual misconduct cases involving party officials sparked public outrage.

To regain people's support, the JP should distance itself from bigger parties like the DP and the People Power Party, which have become vested interests, and concentrate on strengthening its liberal values and agenda, Rhee said.