Ahn Cheol-soo: "Is Han Dong-hoon the leader anyway? We have to wait and see the election results"

"Will Focus on Medical Crisis, Pension Reform, and Future Growth Engines"

Ahn Cheol-soo, a member of the People Power Party, evaluated the so-called 'Eodaehan' (Anyway, the representative is Han Dong-hoon) forecast that former Emergency Response Committee member Han Dong-hoon is likely to be elected at the party convention at the end of next month by saying, "You have to open the lid of the election to see."

On the 18th, in response to a question on SBS Radio's 'Kim Tae-hyun's Political Show' about whether there is actually an 'Eodaehan' atmosphere within the party, Ahn said, "Each party member has their own thoughts, so the party members' consensus or collective intelligence will come together to decide the representative."

When asked whether he had formed the so-called 'Non-Han Dong-hoon Coalition' together with fellow party member Yoon Sang-hyun, Ahn drew a line by saying, "I am close to Representative Yoon and have shared various concerns, but since we are competitors in the party convention, I think we should maintain neutrality to some extent." He rebutted, "Such coalitions usually happen after becoming candidates and then withdrawing together, but since I did not even run as a candidate, how could I do such a thing?"

Ahn Cheol-soo, member of the People Power Party. [Photo by Yonhap News]

He cited reform as an important virtue for the next party leader.

Ahn explained, "The party must have policy capabilities and strategies to properly solve livelihood issues, and must promote these properly. Also, it must have functions to educate politicians and the general public and to accurately grasp public opinion through surveys." He added, "Unfortunately, these five core functions are not working properly, so reforming these broken parts will be the first task of the next party leader."

He continued, "As the ruling party, a constructive relationship between the party and government is absolutely necessary," and said, "The ideal party leader would be one who can plan future growth engines, and carry out reforms in pensions, education, labor, and healthcare."

Earlier, the ruling camp had strongly predicted Ahn's candidacy for the party convention, but he suddenly declared his withdrawal from the race the day before. Regarding this, Ahn revealed, "After the general election, I thought about why I started politics while going through various concerns," and said, "I thought it was a priority to solve urgent national issues as I originally intended."

He added, "From today, a medical crisis begins, and pension reform must be handled from the start of the 22nd National Assembly, but progress is sluggish," and said, "At this critical time when urgent problems are piling up, I pondered whether I should be absorbed in the party convention or prevent the medical crisis that could worsen uncontrollably a month later."