Jeong Jom-sik, floor leader of the main opposition People Power Party, called on President Lee Jae-myung to scrap the government's real estate policy and carry out a sweeping shakeup of the presidential office and cabinet, while proposing an emergency economic council bringing together the ruling and opposition parties and the government.
Speaking at a leadership meeting at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, on the 10th, Jeong said the government should "scrap its real estate policy centered on lending restrictions and taxes, if it feels even the slightest sense of responsibility." He added that the president "must fully replace the three chiefs of staff at the presidential office and the cabinet, which are in disarray, and completely reconsider the live broadcasts of policy briefings that have degenerated into a Lee Jae-myung comedy show." He went on to say, "I propose recognizing the opposition as a governing partner and holding an emergency economic council of the ruling and opposition parties and the government."
Taking aim at the government's real estate policy, Jeong criticized it, saying, "Trapped in a mistaken dogma, it is not enough for them to crack down on multiple-home owners — they are even demonizing single-home owners who do not live in their properties." He said, "The government's tax bombs are being passed on to jeonse and monthly-rent tenants, and young people are being driven into housing hell."
He noted that on the 8th, the president posted on social media about efforts to improve the "marriage penalty," pledging to make marriage a hopeful new start rather than a burden. "But what the president should be worried about now is not the burden of marriage on young people," Jeong said, "but a governing approach that is making it hard for them even to maintain the status quo, let alone marry."
He also argued that the government is effectively tearing down not only young people's ladder to housing but also their ladder to building wealth. Jeong lashed out, saying, "They ran the domestic stock market like a stock-tip chat room, and then went so far as to introduce single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs), melting down young people's stock accounts." He added, "They fleeced young people to build the Tower of Babel that is the KOSPI."
He continued, "The politicians of the 386 generation, who are the mainstream of the government and the ruling party, need to look back on their own youth." He said, "You built your wealth through high-interest savings, and if you worked hard, you could move from monthly rent and jeonse to owning an apartment of your own." He then asked, "How can you wipe out entirely the benefits your generation took for granted, when you cannot even pass them on?"
He also brought up the "scrapped-bus youth housing" proposed by Rep. Hwang Hee of the Democratic Party of Korea. "A Democratic Party lawmaker even put forward scrapped-bus youth housing as an idea," he said. "This is not policy — it is mockery of young people."
Jeong raised his voice, saying, "For young people, assets and housing are basic conditions for marriage and child-rearing." He asked, "With what shame can the president talk about the burden of marriage while destroying these basic conditions?"
He then said, "Do not pretend to look after people carefully by citing just a few tax breaks," adding, "How is that any different from Nolbu, who deliberately breaks the swallow's leg and then applies medicine to it?"
He also added, "If this kind of irresponsible governing continues, the People Power Party will have no choice but to steel itself for drastic action."
