Han Dong-hoon, the newly elected leader of the People Power Party, won the party leadership election held on the 23rd at KINTEX in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, defeating candidates Na Kyung-won, Won Hee-ryong, and Yoon Sang-hyun with 62.8% of the vote.
Below is the full text of Leader Han's acceptance speech.
Respected citizens! Dear party members and comrades, I am Han Dong-hoon, the leader of the People Power Party.
Today, we move toward the future. We begin change. I will faithfully uphold the trust you have placed in me.
I will do my best.
I sincerely thank the three candidates Yoon Sang-hyun, Won Hee-ryong, and Na Kyung-won who stood with me until the end. All three are precious senior politicians and assets of our party.
Congratulations to Kim Min-jeon, Kim Jae-won, Jang Dong-hyuk, and In Yo-han, who were elected as Supreme Council members. I also thank Kim Hyung-dae, Park Yong-chan, Lee Sang-gyu, Ham Woon-kyung, and Park Jung-hoon, who competed alongside us. I will carefully consider the valuable suggestions you made for the party. Congratulations to Jin Jong-oh, who was elected as the youth Supreme Council member. Thanks to Kim Eun-hee, Kim Jeong-sik, and Park Sang-hyun, who ran alongside him. You have brought fresh vitality to our party.
In this party leadership election, we all engaged in fierce debate and competition. At times, it became heated, and at times, there were conflicts. I understand that throughout this process, party members and citizens have felt pain, anger, worry, and have endured a difficult month. I am deeply sorry and regretful.
However, I want to say this: the People Power Party is a mature liberal democratic party that respects differing opinions and acknowledges differences. We have the ability and tradition to overcome conflicts and confrontations through democratic methods of intense debate and persuasion. We will do so.
Former President Park Geun-hye, who lost in the 2007 presidential primary, said, "Let us forget all the events of the primary process. If we cannot forget overnight, then let us forget over several days or weeks." That one phrase helped heal the rifts and wounds from the intense primary process. It became the foundation for the conservative government’s consecutive terms in power. I will not simply leave it to the passage of time. I will walk together with all those who competed with me. I will devote special care.
Party members and citizens, today you have chosen change for the People Power Party. Today, a strong force to lead new change in our party has gathered. What is the change that party members and citizens have chosen and commanded?
First, it is to respond to public sentiment and the expectations of the people. Second, it is to become more competent for the future. Third, I believe it is to expand our outreach.
These are the messages many party members and citizens have conveyed during this intense month-long journey. Let us respond more to the hearts and expectations of the people. There is no politics that can overcome public sentiment. We must not fight against public sentiment but become one with it.
Currently, the main opposition party is recklessly rushing forward in a way rarely seen in history, but public sentiment is not unilaterally restraining this recklessness. This is because we are still being evaluated as less responsive to the hearts of the people and not practicing politics that meets their expectations. Everyone, let us show a little more responsiveness to the people’s hearts and adapt to their expectations. Through healthy and productive party-government relations and reasonable debates, let us accurately grasp public sentiment and respond promptly without missing the moment. Let us ride the wave of public sentiment.
Many citizens are already prepared to support us more if we simply do this. I will take the lead. Let us become more competent for the future. Let us sincerely and kindly explain our competence to the people, seek their agreement, and gain their empathy.
Everyone, in fact, the Yoon Seok-yeol government, which we built together with the citizens and party members, is already competent. We can take pride in that. We restored the broken Korea-US value alliance and developed it into a Korea-US nuclear alliance. We rebuilt the collapsed nuclear power industry and secured a multi-trillion won contract for the Czech Republic’s nuclear power plant construction. We established principles for responding to illegality by firmly dealing with the illegal strikes of the Cargo Solidarity Union. We strengthened responses to economic crimes to protect ordinary citizens from financial crimes. These achievements alone will be remembered in the history of the Yoon Seok-yeol government.
However, despite these great achievements, the reason the people have not given us more support is that we have listened less, explained less, and persuaded less. I will take the lead, together with our Supreme Council members, to listen, explain, and persuade. Thus, we will earn the love of the people. Everyone, don’t you really want to receive the love of the people? I truly want that. Not only with the people but also when there are differences within the party, I will always explain, listen, and persuade my fellow party members. I will also care for the hearts of those who did not support me.
Based on such listening and persuasion, we will lead the future issues of the Republic of Korea. We will propose and lead tasks that can drive Korea’s upward growth, such as AI, semiconductors, nuclear power, energy, and defense industries. We will prioritize and realize the most urgent policies for people’s livelihoods, such as abolishing the financial investment income tax.
We will work together to open paths for the younger generation who cannot find opportunities or avenues for growth. I will implement the rebuilding of the grassroots political system, strengthening the policy functions of the Yeouido Research Institute, expanding the political base through flexible operation of the People Power Party, and bold political reforms through the abolition of privileges, as I mentioned when I ran. Ultimately, this will be the path for our People Power Party to expand toward centrists and young people in the metropolitan area.
In the past, the ratio of firm supporters between us and the opposition was 3 to 2, but now it is 2 to 3. This is a reality that cannot be changed immediately. Therefore, we must expand our outreach; only then can we win, while the opposition can win even by maintaining the status quo. If the opposition were reasonable citizens, it would be regrettable, but the reason they push forward this one-person dominance system is because they rely on such demographic and support base structures as their backing.
The people who chose our People Power Party in the last presidential election were not a homogeneous support base with a single mindset. They were a coalition of voters with diverse thoughts and philosophies united for regime change. I will restore this coalition of voters in a short time.
Respected citizens, dear party members and comrades, I have closely observed our People Power Party at the most recent and most critical times. I have experienced both leaps and falls over 100 days. We will firmly oppose and win against forces that threaten democracy.
There will never again be talk of us being cautious or a well-being party. Our People Power Party will be a party where politicians do not seek well-being, but supporters and citizens experience well-being through politics.
I want to practice politics that party members who chose me will not regret, politics that respects party members who did not choose me, and furthermore, politics that even those who do not support the People Power Party will nod in agreement with.
"Waiting for the storm to pass is not right. Fearing the storm while watching it is even less right." As long as I am the party leader, I will never put you ahead of the storm. Together with the newly elected leadership, I will become the storm myself and lead you.
Today, we break through the storm and move toward the future. I am happy to be able to share the first day toward the future with party members and comrades. Let us begin the change we desire together. Thank you.
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