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Conservative party’s support slips despite growth in loyal base

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Conservative party’s support slips despite growth in loyal base

South Korea’s main opposition People Power Party is struggling to translate a surge in loyal party members into broader public support, raising doubts over whether the conservatives are on the right track ahead of next year’s local elections.

The disconnect has sharpened concerns that the party’s current strategy of mobilizing loyal supporters — largely by intensifying attacks on the Lee Jae Myung administration — is failing to resonate with moderate voters, even as the ruling Democratic Party is mired in a corruption scandal.

A Realmeter survey released Monday showed the Democratic Party at a 45.8 percent approval rating, compared with 34.6 percent for the People Power Party, widening the gap to 11.2 percentage points.

The poll was conducted after former Oceans Minister Jeon Jae-soo, also a lawmaker from the Democratic Party, resigned Thursday over bribery allegations linked to the Unification Church — an issue the opposition had expected to erode support for the ruling party. However, the Democratic Party’s approval rose by 1.6 percentage points from the previous week, while the People Power Party’s approval rating fell by 2.4 points.

The result has reinforced a growing sense within the opposition party that the political headwinds facing the ruling party are no longer translating into electoral gains for conservatives. More fundamentally, doubts are growing over whether rallying the supporter base can generate broader public appeal.

Third-term lawmaker of the People Power Party, Rep. Yoon Han-hong, warned that the expanding influence of hard-line supporters risks reinforcing the party’s image as narrowly ideological, making it harder to regain centrist voters. He likened the party’s attacks on the Democratic Party to “a dog with mud criticizing a dog with chaff.”

Rep. Kwon Young-jin of the People Power Party, who previously served as mayor of Daegu — traditionally a conservative stronghold — also warned that if local elections were held immediately, the party would lose nearly every major race outside its traditional strongholds.

Despite the warnings and poll results, the People Power Party leadership has insisted it is on the path to recovery, pointing to a rise in dues-paying members.

According to the party, membership rebounded from about 700,000 in the aftermath of former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s martial law declaration on Dec. 3, 2024 — an incident widely seen as a factor that led to the party’s loss of power in the June 3 presidential election — to roughly 960,000 in recent months, nearing the one-million mark for the first time in the conservative party’s history.

The party has attributed the growth in loyal supporters to its recent move to increase the weight of party members’ votes in candidate primaries — potentially from 50 percent to as high as 70 percent — but concerns have also been raised that such changes could further narrow its broader appeal.

Choi Chang-ryeol, professor of political science at Yongin University, said that while such changes may strengthen internal cohesion, they could discourage candidates seen as competitive among the broader electorate from entering races.

“The more influence strong supporters gain, the harder it becomes to field candidates who can win over the broader public,” he said.

As part of efforts to regain momentum before the 2026 local elections, the People Power Party has intensified attacks on the Democratic Party over allegations that its lawmakers received bribes linked to the Unification Church.

Rep. Jang Dong-hyeok, chair of the People Power Party, said Monday that the party would coordinate with the minor opposition New Reform Party to propose a special counsel investigation into the case — an attempt widely viewed as a bid to pool conservative support ahead of the local elections.

The prospect of a broader alliance, however, appears limited.

New Reform Party leader Rep. Lee Jun-seok said cooperation could be possible on specific legislative issues but ruled out political bargaining or electoral coordination.

“We can work together on individual matters, but I don’t see much reason to engage with the People Power Party in political transactions,” Lee said Wednesday.

Rep. Park Sung-hoon, the People Power Party’s spokesperson, also downplayed the idea of integration, saying unification driven by “political engineering” would not be positive.

Internal criticism has meanwhile intensified over the party’s failure to distance itself from former President Yoon.

Former lawmaker Yoon Hee-sook, who previously chaired the party’s innovation committee, said this week that continued ambiguity over responsibility for the martial law incident is pushing the party toward an existential crisis.

“‘Yoon Again’ has become the party’s face,” Yoon wrote in a Facebook post, calling on the former president to issue a direct apology. “If we fail to make a clean break, this will only lead to ‘Democratic Party forever,’” she added.

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