President Lee Jae-myung's approval rating fell for a third straight week to the lowest level since taking office. Negative assessments topped the 50% mark for the first time. In party approval ratings, the Democratic Party of Korea was 45.1% and the People Power Party was 37.7%.
According to a survey conducted by pollster Realmeter on behalf of Energy Economic News from the 27th to the 31st of last month, the positive assessment of the president's job performance was 45.9%, down 0.4 percentage points from the previous week. It was the lowest level in this survey since Lee took office in June last year.
Negative assessments also rose 1.0 percentage points from the previous week to 50.5%. It was the first time negative assessments broke into the 50% range, with the gap between positive and negative assessments at 4.6 percentage points, outside the margin of error.
Realmeter said, "Although there were outcomes from overseas tours and summits, it appears the decline in support continued due to negative media coverage of overall political and economic issues, including the stock market plunge and economic anxiety following the fallout from leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs), controversy over real estate tax policy, and debate over constitutional revision for presidential re-election."
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party rose 3.8 percentage points from the previous survey conducted last week to 45.1%, while the People Power Party fell 2.9 percentage points to 37.7%. The Democratic Party rose in Daegu–North Gyeongsang (11.5 percentage points), Daejeon–Sejong–South Chungcheong and North Chungcheong (9.8 percentage points), and Gwangju–South Jeolla–North Jeolla (4.6 percentage points), while the People Power Party fell in Daegu–North Gyeongsang (12.1 percentage points), Daejeon–Sejong–South Chungcheong and North Chungcheong (9.4 percentage points), Gwangju–South Jeolla–North Jeolla (3.4 percentage points), and Seoul (3.4 percentage points).
Realmeter said, "For the Democratic Party, highlighting its leadership in state affairs through the passage of the bill abolishing the prosecution's supplementary investigative authority, along with party leadership contenders moving to rally the base ahead of the party convention for party leader and supreme council members, appears to have led to the rise in support."
The survey was conducted with automated responses via wireless phone among 1,002 voters aged 18 and older. For the president's job performance rating, the response rate was 3.8% and the sampling error was ±2.0 percentage points at the 95% confidence level, while for the party approval rating survey, the response rate was 3.3% and the sampling error was ±3.1 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. For details, refer to the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.