As President Lee Jae-myung's approval rating fails to break out of its downward trend, a sense of crisis is growing even within the ruling party. Lee's approval rating had been gradually declining due to issues such as the real estate tax system and the abolition of supplementary investigative authority, and the "Aug. 31 Cabinet shake-up," pulled out as a bid to shift the political landscape, appears to have backfired. Within the ruling party, some are even saying that action is needed before the president's approval rating becomes irrecoverable.
In a poll by Realmeter commissioned by Energy Economic News released on the 7th, the president's approval rating was tallied at 37.4%, down 1.5 percentage points (p) from the previous week. It was the eighth straight week of decline. During this period, Lee's approval rating fell a total of 11.5 percentage points. Realmeter assessed, "Controversy over appointments—including alleged favoritism and a withdrawal of indictments surrounding the second-term Cabinet Minister nominees—debate over a U-turn on the real estate tax reform plan, and the president's judicial risks overlapped."
Within the ruling party, voices of concern say national governance momentum is weakening due to the president's approval rating. A senior lawmaker from the Democratic Party of Korea in the Seoul metropolitan area said, "Among lawmakers, there is already talk that front-line public officials have started to ignore instructions," and added, "If the approval rating is not recovered quickly, it will become even harder to manage what the government and ruling party have set in motion."
Tension over the president's approval rating began to circulate within the ruling bloc around the 24th of last month, as it approached the 30% range. Since then, the government moved to mollify public sentiment by withdrawing a tax reform plan that would have reduced the comprehensive real estate tax deduction for non-resident single-home owners, and by the resignation of Blue House Policy Chief Kim Yong-beom, who had been tagged as responsible for single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
The Cabinet reshuffle, intended as a trump card to shift the situation, further fueled negative public opinion. Kim Seung-won, the Minister of Justice nominee, is under fire over "alleged lobbying for approval of a new drug clinical trial," while Yong Hye-in, the Minister of Gender Equality and Family nominee, is facing backlash over a "family party" and "running a shadow organization."
Inside the party, some say the issues with the Minister appointments must be resolved quickly. Kim's confirmation hearing is scheduled for the 15th. Yong's hearing schedule has not yet been set. Kim is a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, and the party has entered an "all-out protection mode," so if the nomination falls through, it could instead spark a backlash against the ruling bloc.
A Democratic Party of Korea official said, "Kim has drawn a line that withdrawing the indictment is impossible, and the party has decided to respond at the party level to personal controversies," adding, "I think it is best to resolve issues regarding the nominees by Chuseok at the latest."
The presidential job performance poll mentioned above was conducted using automated responses to mobile phone calls among 2,510 voters aged 18 or older. The response rate was 4.2%, with a margin of error of ±2.0 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. For details, refer to the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.