Ahn Cheol-soo, a candidate for the chair position of the People Power Party, said on the 18th that the falling approval ratings of the Lee Jae-myung administration and the ruling party were largely due to the 'August 15' amnesty for Cho Kuk and Yoon Mi-hyang.
On the same day, Ahn posted on Facebook saying, "Thank you, Cho Kuk! Please continue to be active with even more fervor."
Ahn noted, "I welcome the main reason for President Lee's approval rating falling 12.2 percentage points over the past two weeks," adding, "According to Realmeter today, President Lee's approval rating collapse to below 50% is imminent."
He continued, "On a daily basis, the approval rating fell below half, already at 48.3% on the 14th, which is lower than the support we received in the election," and stated, "The gap in approval ratings between our party and the Democratic Party has nearly vanished."
He pointed out, "The decline in President Lee's approval rating is significantly influenced by the August 15 amnesty for Cho Kuk and Yoon Mi-hyang. President Lee, this is the public sentiment," and emphasized, "Former Representative Cho Kuk from the Rebuilding Korea Party resumed his social media activities right after the amnesty while giving interviews to pro-Lee media and even appearing on Kim Eo-jun's broadcast, saying 'the public needs to feel the heart more than the mind.'"
Ahn remarked, "The unleashed public attention instincts of former Representative Cho are causing the public to frown. If he teams up with Ms. Yoon Mi-hyang, approval ratings will plummet," adding, "Former Representative Cho Kuk is effectively serving as the 'X-man' revealing the true nature of the Lee Jae-myung administration. Thank you, Cho Kuk, welcome back, Cho Kuk."
He also stated, "I hope you work harder, with more fervor, and become the vanguard of the second consecutive change in government after the last time."
Earlier, a public opinion poll conducted by Realmeter at the request of the Energy Economic Newspaper from the 11th to the 14th, surveying 2,003 adults nationwide, revealed that President Lee's job approval rating fell to 51.1%, a decrease of 5.4 percentage points compared to the previous week. Compared to two weeks ago (63.3%), it has dropped by 12.2 percentage points. The negative evaluation of the administration's performance increased by 6.3 percentage points from last week to 44.5%. (The margin of error is ±2.2 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, with a response rate of 5.2%. For more details, please refer to the website of the Central Election Survey Deliberation Commission.)
Daily indicators showed that after the controversy surrounding the special amnesty on Liberation Day surfaced on the 12th, it fell to 54.3%, and then dropped to 48.3% on the 14th as public opinion spread regarding the arrest of Kim Keon-hee and the People Power Party headquarters search.
The approval ratings for political parties showed the Democratic Party of Korea at 39.9% and the People Power Party at 36.7%. The gap between the two parties' approval ratings narrowed to 3.2 percentage points, which is within the margin of error (±3.1 percentage points).