[the300] In response to a public opinion survey released on the 20th, President Lee Jae-myung’s performance in governance achieved an approval rating of 65.5%, setting a new record high since taking office. It’s believed that significant achievements in economic and energy security, such as securing a large amount of Middle Eastern oil and recovering the KOSPI, have driven the increase in support.
According to a survey conducted by Realmeter, commissioned by Energy Economic News, from the 13th to the 17th of April (3rd week of April) with 2,519 eligible voters aged 18 and over nationwide, the positive evaluation rose by 3.6 percentage points from last week to 65.5% (50.7% said he was doing very well, 14.8% said he was doing fairly well). This surpasses the previous high of 64.6% recorded in the second week of July last year. Negative evaluations fell by 2.8 percentage points to 30% (22.2% said he was doing very poorly, 7.8% said he was doing poorly). Responses of ‘don’t know’ were at 4.5%.
Realmeter analyzed that “the achievement of securing 270 million barrels of oil amid the Middle East crisis and the recovery of the KOSPI to the 6,200 mark led to a rise in approval rates.” The firm also noted that President Lee’s strong statements on human rights in Israel and his participation in the 12th-anniversary event of the Sewol ferry disaster, a first for a sitting president, expanded support among moderates and young people, setting a new record high since he took office.
Regionally, Incheon and Gyeonggi rose by 5.2 percentage points to 69.9%, marking the largest increase. Seoul increased by 3 percentage points to 59.3%, and Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam recorded a 2.4 percentage point rise to 60.1%. Daegu and Gyeongbuk also saw a 2.4 percentage point increase to 48.5%, showing an overall upward trend across all regions.
By age group, those in their 20s increased by 8.3 percentage points to 50.1%, and those in their 30s rose by 5 percentage points to 55.2%, continuing the upward trend among people in their 20s and 30s. The 40s saw a 3.4 percentage point rise to 76%, and those in their 60s increased by 2.8 percentage points to 67.8%.
Ideologically, moderates saw a significant increase of 7.4 percentage points to 69.1%. Progressives rose by 3.8 percentage points to 90.9%. On the contrary, conservatives decreased by 3.4 percentage points to 35%.
Separately, in a party support survey conducted over two days on the 16th and 17th with 1,011 voters, the Democratic Party recorded 50.5%, a 0.1 percentage point decrease from last week, maintaining over 50% for three consecutive weeks. The People Power Party rebounded with an increase of 1.4 percentage points to 31.4%. The Innovative Korea Party dropped by 0.6 percentage points to 2.7%, the Reform Party fell by 0.3 percentage points to 2.5%, and the Progressive Party decreased by 0.3 percentage points to 1.7%. The non-party affiliated group increased by 0.3 percentage points to 8.3%.
Both surveys were conducted using a wireless (100%) automatic response (ARS) method with randomly generated samples through a random dialing method. The response rate for the presidential approval survey was 5.4%, with a margin of error of ±2 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. The response rate for the party support survey was 3.9%, with a margin of error of ±3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.