President Lee Jae-myung, having returned from a trip to the United States and South America, greets Interior and Safety Minister Yoon Ho-jung, who came to welcome him, at Seoul Airport in Seongnam on the 3rd. Yonhap News
President Lee Jae-myung’s job approval rating has fallen for three consecutive weeks, reaching its lowest point since he took office in June last year. According to a Realmeter poll released on the 3rd, positive assessments of the president’s governance fell 0.4 percentage points from the previous week to 45.9%. Negative assessments, by contrast, rose 1.0 percentage point to 50.5%, surpassing 50% for the first time. The decline is attributed to major policies and legislation that failed to meet public expectations and left citizens disappointed, including the Democratic Party’s forced legislation to abolish the prosecution’s supplementary investigation authority, controversy over a constitutional amendment for presidential re-election, the introduction of single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and a stock market that has degenerated into a speculative arena.
The Democratic Party pushed through a revision to the Criminal Procedure Act abolishing the prosecution’s supplementary investigation authority, and also inserted a provision expanding the grounds for dismissal of indictment that could affect President Lee’s criminal trial. In a Gallup Korea survey last month, opinion favoring the retention of supplementary investigation authority stood at 61%, far exceeding the 23% supporting its full abolition. Even among Democratic Party supporters, retention (46%) outpaced abolition (39%), yet the party forged ahead. Despite this, the presidential office offered a stance detached from public sentiment, saying it “respects the National Assembly’s legislative process and final judgment.”
Policy failures also played a part. Economic officials did not hesitate to make remarks encouraging “leveraged investing.” Half-baked stock-boosting policies, such as the introduction of leveraged ETFs and the expansion of the National Pension Service’s allocation to domestic stocks, have drawn criticism for reducing the stock market to a speculative arena. Even so, Kim Yong-beom, the presidential chief of staff for policy, invited investors’ anger with a responsibility-dodging remark that “we are not the only ones doing this.” Real estate policies focused solely on curbing loans and imposing regulations have failed to wipe away the tears of ordinary people without homes, instead producing side effects that further fueled housing price increases.
President Lee has set this year as the “first year of a great leap forward” and pledged governance results. But a leap and reforms unsupported by governance approval are nothing more than empty slogans. Governance must be conducted looking only at the people, setting aside political advantages and disadvantages. In this regard, the proper course for the Criminal Procedure Act revision is to accept public will and exercise the right to request reconsideration, or veto. Furthermore, for core tasks such as the stock market and real estate, the government must abandon its “policy impatience” and put forward effective and sophisticated follow-up measures. Now is the time to humbly heed the “warning of public sentiment.”