Lee′s approval rating inches down to 59.3 pct: poll

▲ President Lee Jae Myung delivers a speech marking Buddha's Birthday at a Buddhist temple in the northwestern city of Yangju on May 24, 2026. (Yonhap)

president-approval rating

Lee's approval rating inches down to 59.3 pct: poll

SEOUL, May 25 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Jae Myung's approval rating fell slightly from a week earlier last week, marking its first decline in three weeks, a survey showed Monday.

In the poll conducted by Realmeter and commissioned by EKN newspaper, the positive assessment of Lee's job performance dropped 1.2 percentage points from a week before to 59.3 percent. The weekly survey was conducted on 2,507 people aged 18 and older.

The figure stood at 59.5 percent in the fifth week of April, down 2.7 percentage points from the previous week, but rose to 59.7 percent and 60.5 percent in the first and second weeks of May, respectively, before falling this week.

The negative assessment rose 1 percentage point to 36.1 percent. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.

Realmeter said Lee's approval rating had shown signs of improvement at the start of last week following his criticism of a controversial Starbucks marketing event and the government hinting at invoking emergency arbitration powers against a possible strike by the labor union of Samsung Electronics Co.

The figure turned lower after Samsung reached a tentative wage deal with its labor union, which, if realized, would lead to record bonus payments to Samsung employees, the pollster noted.

In a separate survey conducted by the same pollster, support for the ruling Democratic Party rose 1.7 percentage points from a week earlier to 47.5 percent, while support for the main opposition People Power Party slipped 0.2 percentage point to 33.3 percent.

Realmeter said support for the ruling party was driven by respondents in Gwangju and Jeolla provinces, a major stronghold for the liberal bloc, and those in their 20s following the party's strong response to the Starbucks controversy.

The coffee chain, operated by Shinsegae affiliate E-Mart, came under fire after launching an online "Tank Day" promotion on the anniversary of the 1980 Gwangju democratization movement on May 18.

The poll, conducted on 1,004 individuals aged 18 and over on Thursday and Friday, had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, with a confidence level of 95 percent.

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