President Yoon's Approval Rating Drops to 30% Range... Democratic Party Narrowly Surpasses Ruling Party Within Margin of Error [Realmeter]

Realmeter, 1st Week of July Survey
President Yoon Seok-yeol's Approval Rating: Positive 37.0% vs Negative 57.0%
Party Support Also Reversed Within Margin of Error
People Power Party 40.9% vs Democratic Party 41.8%

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] A poll released on the 11th showed that President Yoon Seok-yeol's approval rating for his administration has plummeted to the 30% range.

According to Realmeter's survey conducted from the 4th to the 8th with 2,525 voters aged 18 and older nationwide, the negative evaluation of President Yoon's administration, stating "The administration is performing poorly," rose by 6.8 percentage points from the previous survey to 57.0%. The positive evaluation, stating "The administration is performing well," fell by 7.4 percentage points during the same period to 37.0%. This is the first time since his inauguration that President Yoon's approval rating has dropped to the 30% range in a Realmeter survey.

The gap between positive and negative evaluations is 20.0 percentage points, which is outside the margin of error.

By region, Seoul (37.6%) saw the largest drop of 11.3 percentage points, followed by Daejeon·Sejong·Chungcheong (37.2%) with a 10.6 percentage point decline. Daegu·Gyeongbuk (47.7%) and Busan·Ulsan·Gyeongnam (40.9%) also fell by 9.6 percentage points and 6.9 percentage points respectively compared to the previous survey.

By age group, the 20s (30.9%) showed a significant drop of 12.9 percentage points in just one week. This was followed by the 60s (46.3%) with a 10.2 percentage point decline, and those aged 70 and above (56.1%) with an 8.0 percentage point drop. The 40s (26.2%), 30s (33.7%), and 50s (34.1%) also fell by 5.8, 4.1, and 3.7 percentage points respectively, showing a decline in approval ratings across all age groups.

Among supporters of political parties, the approval rating for President Yoon's administration among People Power Party supporters dropped sharply by 10.7 percentage points, from 87.7% to 77.0%. Among Democratic Party supporters, it fell by 1.6 percentage points from 4.9% to 3.3%.

Realmeter attributed the decline in President Yoon's approval rating to personnel controversies and the aftermath of the Ethics Committee proceedings involving party leader Lee Jun-seok.

Senior Expert Bae Cheol-ho of Realmeter said, "Both positive and negative evaluations showed large volatility, resulting in the largest gap since the launch of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration," analyzing that "This appears to be due to personnel controversies such as the 'other staff' during the Spain trip and the employment of a sixth cousin on the maternal side as an administrative officer." He added, "President Yoon's approval rating is lower than that of the ruling party, which indicates a tendency among core supporters to separate their evaluation of the president from the party. This phenomenon is only possible if there is a defection among core supporters." He further noted, "Considering the People Power Party's 'Lee Jun-seok Ethics Committee aftermath,' this is a very dangerous signal."

In the party support survey, the People Power Party recorded 40.9%, down 2.6 percentage points from the previous survey, while the Democratic Party rose 1.5 percentage points to 41.8%, reversing the support rates within the margin of error.

The People Power Party had a support rate of 49.8% in the first week of June but has declined for six consecutive weeks, dropping 8.9 percentage points, whereas the Democratic Party increased by 3.6 percentage points from 38.2% during the same period.

Senior Expert Bae predicted, "The People Power Party is experiencing escalating internal conflicts ahead of the 'Lee Jun-seok Ethics Committee' decision, showing a continuous downward trend. With Lee Jun-seok expressing his intention to reject the ethics decision, the related shock is expected to be strong and prolonged, and the downward pressure on the party's approval rating is likely to increase accordingly."

The margin of error for this survey is ±2.0 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. For more details, please refer to the website of the Central Election Survey Deliberation Commission.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.