이재명 지지율 36.3%, 취임 후 첫 40%대 붕괴

Support for Lee Jae-myung’s government has fallen into the 30s for the first time, according to a survey released by pollster Yeoronjosa-Gongjeong covering August 23-24. Positive evaluations dropped to 36.3 percent, while disapproval climbed to 60.9 percent, crossing the 60-percent threshold for the first time since Lee took office. Just two weeks earlier, on August 10, the same pollster had measured approval at 41.3 percent — meaning support fell more than five points in a fortnight, breaching the psychologically important 40-percent line entirely. Lee Jae-myung’s approval slide now reads less like a temporary correction and more like a structural collapse.

The survey polled 1,144 adults nationwide, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at the 95-percent confidence level. Positive evaluations came in at 36.3 percent, negative at 60.9 percent, with 2.8 percent undecided. Given that the same pollster had recorded 41.3-percent approval just two weeks prior, the five-point drop marks a sharp acceleration. Zooming out makes the decline even starker: a National Barometer Survey last month put approval at 49 percent, and multiple pollsters throughout August — including Everynews’ Everyresearch, Cheonji Ilbo, and the Newdaily — have since confirmed the breach of the 40-percent line as a trend shared across virtually every polling house. Analysts point to a cluster of causes: public backlash over surging housing prices and tax-code revisions, the so-called “rollercoaster KOSPI” stock-market swings, and controversy surrounding the abolition of prosecutors’ supplementary investigative authority — all of which appear to be eroding loyalty even among the government’s core supporters in their 40s and 50s. Losing more than 10 points in under two months is not simple policy fatigue; it signals a visible erosion of trust in the administration’s overall governance.

The Democratic Party has publicly shrugged off the numbers, insisting “a poll is just a poll,” but the mood inside the party tells a different story. With its ongoing national convention descending into an all-out negative campaign, critics within the ruling camp itself warn that the leadership vacuum is sapping governing momentum. Publicly, officials frame the slide as “temporary fluctuation”; privately, anxiety is mounting over what continued erosion could mean for the next local and by-elections. The survey exposes a paradox: the push to abolish prosecutors’ supplementary investigative powers — designed to rally the base — appears instead to have accelerated the exodus of moderate and unaffiliated voters. In trying to consolidate its core, the ruling party has narrowed its own appeal. If it keeps hiding behind the fact that the Democratic Party still edges out the People Power Party in party-support figures, the next survey could bring an even bigger shock: that gap closing too.

A collapsing approval rating is a windfall for the opposition, not a victory. What the People Power Party under Chairman Jang Dong-hyuk needs to do now is not mock the government’s missteps but present concrete policy alternatives on housing, taxation, and security. The contrast with President Trump’s approach at home — tax cuts and deregulation aimed at expanding private-sector supply to shore up approval — could not be sharper: the Lee government is moving in precisely the opposite direction, trying to control prices and procedures through state intervention. Korean conservatism’s market-oriented philosophy, dating back to the Syngman Rhee government, has repeatedly shown that whenever the state tries to outmuscle the market, ordinary citizens end up paying the bill. If the People Power Party wants to convert this moment into an actual change of government, it must pair its organizational reform push with a clear, market-friendly alternative on housing and taxation — and put it before the public without delay. Criticism without an alternative cannot carry a windfall through to the next election.

Approval at 36.3 percent, disapproval at 60.9 percent — these numbers represent the most sobering report card Lee Jae-myung’s government has faced eight months into office. Unless this more-than-10-point slide over two months reverses, it carries the potential to reshape the entire calculus heading into the next elections. For the People Power Party to turn this opportunity into an actual change of government, its readiness with alternatives must outweigh its criticism. A single approval number is no reason for complacency. As long as the pattern of failure under this China-leaning, anti-American-tilted Lee government keeps repeating, a change of government remains the only answer.