President Lee Jae-myung's approval rating has dropped for the first time since taking office. The controversies surrounding the confirmation hearings for Minister candidates Kang Sun-woo and Lee Jin-sook appear to have affected this.
According to a survey conducted by Realmeter at the request of the Energy Economy Newspaper from 14th to 18th, involving 2,514 voters aged 18 and older nationwide, 62.2% rated President Lee's performance positively, a decrease of 2.4 percentage points from the previous week. Negative evaluations rose by 2.3 percentage points to 32.3%.
Realmeter analyzed, "The intensifying controversies surrounding the confirmation hearings of major Minister candidates, political and social instability factors such as the search and seizure by the special investigation into internal disorder, and disasters due to record heavy rainfall appears to have negatively impacted the evaluation of the government’s performance."
The approval rating of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea has also declined after four weeks. In a survey on party support conducted on 17th and 18th among 1,003 voters, the Democratic Party recorded 50.8%, a decrease of 5.4 percentage points from the previous week. Meanwhile, the People Power Party's approval rating rose by 3.1 percentage points to 27.4%.
Realmeter stated, "The Democratic Party's decline in approval ratings is linked to the failure to explain during the confirmation process for Minister candidates Kang Sun-woo and Lee Jin-sook, along with the opposition party's strong demand for resignations, which seems to have influenced the drop in support. In contrast, the People Power Party, which had been on a downward trend, appears to have benefitted from the so-called 'political special investigation's suppression of the opposition party' narrative in solidifying its core conservative supporters."
The Rebuilding Korea Party recorded 3.9%, the Reform Party also recorded 3.9%, and The Progressive Party recorded 1.3%.
Both surveys were conducted via wireless automated response telephone surveys. The sampling error for the presidential approval ratings survey is ±2.0 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, and the sampling error for the party support survey is ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. The response rates were 5.2% and 4.4%, respectively. For more details, please refer to the website of the Central Election Survey Deliberation Commission.