The popularity level of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol reached a new negative record, of just 11% after his decision to declare martial law last week, according to a survey released this Friday (13).
The poll, conducted by Gallup Korea among 1,002 adults between December 10 and 12, indicates that positive reviews of Yoon’s performance dropped 5 percentage points from the previous week’s levels.
Yoon’s negative ratings rose to 85%, with 75% of respondents saying they support impeaching the president and 21% saying they oppose his removal.
The National Assembly of South Korea (Parliament) will vote this Saturday (14) on a new motion presented by the liberal opposition Democratic Party (PD) to remove Yoon from office.
The president’s impeachment seems close, as a sufficient number of parliamentarians from the People’s Power Party (PPP), a party of which Yoon is a member, seem willing to support the motion, especially after the president’s speech this Thursday (12). , in which he defended his decision to declare martial law to “save” democracy and once again labeled the opposition as an “anti-state entity”.
A survey released this Thursday by the company Realmeter, but carried out before Yoon made the controversial speech, showed a similar result, with around 75% of respondents supporting Yoon’s impeachment.
In the Gallup poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points and a confidence index of 95%, released this Friday, only 27% of those who declare themselves followers of the PPP support the dismissal, while 66% reject it. categorically.
Among PD supporters, on the other hand, 97% support impeachment and only 3% are against it.
In relation to the country’s two main parties, support for the PPP fell three percentage points, to 24%, while support for the PD increased three percentage points, to 40%, which implies the biggest difference between the two parties since Yoon arrived to power in May 2022.