Confederation of Trade Unions: “250,000 won for all citizens is populism”… Democratic Party Yong Hye-in: “Confederation of Trade Unions was wrong”

Rep. Yong Hye-in of the Democratic Alliance of Korea, a satellite party of the Democratic Party of Korea, said about the Democratic Party’s general election pledge, ‘250,000 won livelihood recovery support for all citizens’, saying, “If once is not enough, it should be done twice.” Regarding the fact that even the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions recently criticized it as ‘populism’, she said, “The Confederation of Trade Unions’ criticism is wrong.”

At a press conference at the National Assembly on the 24th, Rep. Yong Hye-in said, “The livelihood recovery support fund is not a waste of finances, but a productive policy for people’s livelihood,” and argued, “The economic reality calls for urgent financial expenditure to prevent the bankruptcy of people’s livelihood.”

Representative Yong Hye-in said, “As household consumption capacity is depleted, self-employed people are continuing to go bankrupt. “If the number of self-employed bankruptcies increases, people employed in this sector will become unemployed, and various welfare costs, including unemployment benefits, will inevitably increase,” he said. “If external conditions remain uncertain, it is time to clearly boost domestic demand.”

In particular, Rep. Yong Hye-in said, “I will also say a word to the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions,” and added, “It is natural for the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions to protest and criticize the reality that urgent labor issues are not mentioned on the agenda of the leadership talks. However, the criticism that the livelihood recovery support fund is ‘populism that does not take into account the consequences of high inflation’ is wrong,” he said.

He continued, “The people’s livelihood recovery support fund is a benefit to the people’s livelihood in that it supplements real wages even at a modest level, and is by no means a loss.” He added, “It is for an organization representing the interests of labor to criticize the people’s livelihood recovery support fund as populism.” “It’s difficult to understand,” he said.

On the 22nd, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions criticized the Yoon Seok-yeol government in a commentary titled ‘In an era where everything but salaries rise, what is the people’s livelihood?’ and said, “The same goes for the Democratic Party and its leader Lee Jae-myung. He also criticized the public livelihood recovery support pledge, saying, “Thanks to an incompetent president, we won an overwhelming number of seats in the general election, but the policy for people’s livelihood put forward by the large opposition party and the only party in the National Assembly is only 250,000 won per person.”

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions also said, “In an era of unprecedentedly high inflation, they are putting forward populist policies without considering the consequences and talking about the people’s livelihood,” and “they are failing to present more fundamental measures and an effective policy vision for workers and the common people.”

Previously, the Democratic Party pledged to ‘pay 250,000 won per person in support for people’s livelihood recovery’ ahead of the April 10 general election. On the 19th, after winning the general election, Representative Lee Jae-myung again requested the government to pay subsidies for people’s livelihood recovery at the highest level of the party. In response, the ruling party criticized the livelihood recovery support fund as a populist policy that only encourages price increases and further increases the serious fiscal deficit.