Some jumped on the table and dragged colleagues to the floor. After a while the situation calmed down but fighting started again in the afternoon.
On Friday, May 17, Taiwan’s opposition and ruling party MPs clashed during a debate over reform proposals in parliament.
At this time the members sit around the Speaker’s seat. Some jumped on the table and dragged colleagues to the floor. After a while the situation calmed down but fighting started again in the afternoon.
Lai Ching-tae was elected as the president of Taiwan last January. He will officially take over on Monday (May 20). But his party, the Democratic Progressive Party, DPP, lost its majority in parliament. Taiwan’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang, KMT won more seats than the DPP. However, the KMT could not form a government as it did not have a single majority.
For this reason, the opposition has proposed several reforms to increase the influence of the parliament on the government. These include a proposal to give lawmakers more powers to oversee government operations, as well as a controversial proposal to criminalize an official found to have made a false statement in Parliament.
Basically, there was a sharp disagreement between the two main parties, DPP and KMT, on this proposal. As a result of which the violent fight of the legislators happened.
President Lai’s party, the DPP, says that the KMT and TPP are trying to force their demands by making proposals without proper consultation. The DPP called it an unconstitutional abuse of power.
