President Lee's Approval Rating Falls to 46.7%, Disapproval at 49.7% in First "Dead Heat" Reversal [Realmeter]

A public opinion poll released today (June 22) shows that President Lee Jae-myung's approval rating has declined for five consecutive weeks, with negative assessments surpassing positive ones for the first time since he took office.

The survey, conducted by Realmeter at the request of Energy Economy News from June 15 to 19, polled 2,517 voters aged 18 and older nationwide. It found that the positive assessment of President Lee's performance stood at 46.7%, down 4.8 percentage points (p) from the previous week.

This marks the first time since his inauguration that President Lee's approval rating has fallen into the 40% range in a Realmeter survey.

Negative assessments rose by 5.5 percentage points from the previous week to 49.7%, surpassing positive assessments within the margin of error (±2.0 percentage points at a 95% confidence level).

Respondents who answered "not sure" accounted for 3.6%.

Realmeter analyzed, "The spread of accountability following the poor management of the election administration and internal party leadership conflicts served as negative factors for the overall political situation." The agency added, "Despite some positive factors, such as the results of his European tour and the KOSPI surpassing the 9,000 mark, concerns over the polarization of the asset market have been highlighted, leading to a continued decline as support from moderate voters and those in the capital region has drifted away."

In a survey on political party support conducted among 1,001 voters aged 18 and older nationwide from June 18 to 19, the People Power Party (PPP) led the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) for the second consecutive week.

The DPK recorded 40.1%, up 2.1 percentage points from the previous week, while the PPP recorded 42.3%, down 2.0 percentage points from the previous survey.

Although the PPP maintained its lead over the DPK for the second consecutive week, the gap between the two parties narrowed from 6.3 percentage points the previous week to 2.2 percentage points.

Realmeter explained, "The PPP's support turned downward as the burden increased during the process of responding to controversies, such as the potential abolition of early voting for the full re-election following the election management failure, compounded by internal party conflicts including debates over the resignation of the leadership. This weakened the cohesion of conservative voters and led to an exodus of young voters in their 20s and 30s."

Regarding the DPK, the agency analyzed, "As a phase of resolution formed, including the agreement between the ruling and opposition parties on a parliamentary investigation into the poor election management, the party's internal emphasis on the success of the government—despite factional conflicts—was highlighted. This strengthened the consolidation of its support base, leading to a rebound in approval ratings."

The approval ratings for other parties were as follows: Rebuilding Korea Party at 2.9%, Reform Party at 3.4%, and Progressive Party at 1.7%.

Both surveys were conducted using an automated wireless response system.

The margin of error for the presidential job performance survey is ±2.0 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, with a response rate of 4.2%.

The political party support survey had a margin of error of ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, with a response rate of 3.3%.

(For further details, please refer to the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.)

(File Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.