President Moon's 'Negative Ratings' Exceed 50% After Two Months... Ruling Party's Approval Also Drops Sharply [Realmeter]

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] Public sentiment toward President Moon Jae-in's New Year's press conference and the prosecution personnel reshuffle justified by prosecutorial reform was cold. Negative evaluations of President Moon's state administration exceeded 50% for the first time in eight weeks. Meanwhile, approval ratings for state administration sharply dropped from the high 40% range to the mid-40% range.

According to Realmeter's survey commissioned by tbs conducted from the 13th to the 15th, the negative evaluation of President Moon's state administration rose by 4.7 percentage points from the previous week's weekly aggregate to 51.2%, announced on the 16th. Conversely, positive evaluations fell by 3.7 percentage points to 45.1%. Notably, negative evaluations surpassed the 50% mark for the first time in two months since the third week of November. The gap between positive and negative evaluations was 6.1 percentage points, outside the margin of error (±2.5 percentage points).

Realmeter explained that this was influenced by political issues such as President Moon's New Year's press conference announcing strong real estate policies, escalating conflicts with the prosecution, and conservative unification. Additionally, the controversy over the Human Rights Commission's official letter requesting an investigation into the 'Jo Guk family human rights violation' initiated by the Blue House is also believed to have had an impact.

By ideological inclination, negative evaluations sharply increased among conservatives, while positive evaluations slightly declined among progressives. By age group, those in their 30s, 20s, 40s, and 50s were negative. By region, approval ratings declined in most areas including Gyeonggi-Incheon, Busan-Ulsan-Gyeongnam (PK), Daegu-Gyeongbuk (TK), and Seoul.

The ruling party's approval rating also showed a steep decline. The Democratic Party of Korea fell 4.1 percentage points from the previous week to 37.0%, breaking the 40% range. The Democratic Party also declined across most demographics and regions, including centrists, conservatives, progressives, all age groups, Gyeonggi-Incheon, TK, PK, and Seoul. Meanwhile, the Liberty Korea Party rose 1.1 percentage points to 32.4%. As a result, the gap between the two major parties narrowed to 4.6 percentage points, within the margin of error.

The newly surveyed New Conservative Party recorded 5.3%, starting in third place ahead of the Justice Party. The Justice Party fell 0.7 percentage points to 4.8%, and the Bareunmirae Party dropped 1.0 percentage point to 3.7%.

Additionally, the Party for Democracy and Peace rose 0.3 percentage points to 2.2%, and the Our Republican Party remained steady at 1.5%. Also newly surveyed, the Minjung Party started at 1.5%, and the Alternative New Party began with the lowest support among parliamentary parties at 1.1%.

This survey contacted 29,954 voters nationwide aged 19 and older, with a final 1,506 respondents completing the survey, recording a 5.0% response rate. The sampling error is ±2.5 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. For detailed information, refer to the Central Election Survey Deliberation Commission website.