Positive Evaluation of President Lee Jae-myung's Governance Bounces Back After 3 Weeks

The positive evaluation of President Lee Jae-myung's governance has turned upward three weeks after concluding tariff negotiations with the United States.

According to a survey conducted by Realmeter at the request of the Energy Economics Newspaper from the 28th of last month to the 1st of this month, the positive evaluation of President Lee's governance stood at 63.3%.

This marks an increase of 1.8 percentage points compared to the previous week. During the same period, negative evaluations dropped by 1.6 percentage points to 31.4%.

Looking at the regions, positive opinions have increased in most areas, including Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam (up 6.8 percentage points), Daegu and Gyeongbuk (up 5.4 percentage points), and Gwangju and Jeolla (up 4.4 percentage points). Notably, in the traditionally conservative Daegu and Gyeongbuk region, positive evaluations exceeded 50%. Among age groups, support rates over 70% were seen among those in their 40s and 50s, and even among those aged 70 and above, the positive opinions (58.2%) outnumbered the negative ones.

The fact that positive evaluations also exceeded 50% in the conservative Daegu and Gyeongbuk region is particularly noteworthy.

Increased Gap Between the Democratic Party and the People Power Party in Party Support

In a survey regarding party support, the ruling Democratic Party showed a significant lead.

In a survey conducted from the 31st of last month to the 1st of this month involving 1,012 voters aged 18 and older nationwide, the Democratic Party recorded a support rate of 54.5%, up 3.7 percentage points from the previous week.

In contrast, the People Power Party was limited to a support rate of 27.2%, a decrease of 1.8 percentage points. As a result, the gap in support rates between the two parties widened from 21.8 percentage points to 27.3 percentage points.

Regionally, the Democratic Party maintained support above 40% in all areas, including Daegu and Gyeongbuk, while the People Power Party remained in the 20-30% range in most areas except for Daegu and Gyeongbuk (38.0%).

By age group, support for the Democratic Party outnumbered that of the People Power Party across all age brackets, including those aged 70 and above. Specifically, among the elderly, the Democratic Party received 47.9% while the People Power Party received 40.4%, confirming the ruling party's dominance among older voters.

"Democratic Party's Leadership in Responding to Heatwaves Drives Positive Evaluations"…"People Power Party's Decline Attributed to Former President Yoon Seok-youl"

Realmeter analyzed that the rising approval rating for President Lee Jae-myung's governance was influenced by "declaring the early week heatwave a national emergency and expressing a firm commitment to tackling industrial accidents, which positively showcased leadership. Towards the end of the week, there were also diplomatic achievements like the conclusion of the Korea-U.S. trade negotiations."

However, it added that "dissatisfaction with the tax reform proposal and other negative public sentiments acted in a compound manner."

Regarding party support, it elaborated that "the Democratic Party benefited from the stable governance of the Lee Jae-myung administration and the reflexive benefits from the special prosecutor affairs, impacting the rise in support ratings," while "the People Power Party's decline in ratings was mainly due to issues surrounding the special prosecutor related to former President Yoon Seok-youl and factional conflicts around the party leadership election."

Both surveys were conducted using 100% wireless automatic response methods, with the margin of error for the presidential approval rating survey being ±2.0 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, and for the party support survey, it was ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.

The response rates were 5.3% for the presidential approval rating survey and 4.4% for the party support survey.

For more detailed information, please visit the Central Election Survey Deliberation Committee's website.

Image sources: President Lee Jae-myung / News1, Former President Yoon Seok-youl / News1, On the 3rd, candidates for the leadership of the People Power Party are seated together at the 6th National Convention Vision Conference held at the party's headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul. / News1