The Taiwanese Parliament was the scene of virulent exchanges and blows between elected officials on Friday, May 17, against a backdrop of deep divisions between deputies of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and opposition parties.
A few days before Lai Ching-te, the new president of Taiwan, took office, Parliament was the scene of somewhat chaotic scenes. A fight broke out this Friday, May 17 between deputies, reports Reuters. Images circulating on the social network X show lawmakers grabbing, shoving and exchanging blows.
An atmosphere of extreme tension while Parliament, made up of 113 elected officials, was to debate a text aimed at giving deputies more power to supervise government action, according to The Independent.
Elected officials notably surrounded the seat of Parliament Speaker Han Kuo-yu, some going so far as to jump over tables and pull their colleagues to the ground. A deputy from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Kuo Kuo-wen, even snatched a packet of documents from the secretary-general’s desk before fleeing with them out of the chamber, specifies the local daily Taiwan News.
These clashes broke out while Lai Ching-te, the country’s new president since Monday, after being elected last January, does not have a legislative majority.
Reform project to better control government action
The clashes pitted the country’s two main parties, the DPP, which is on the verge of forming a government, and the Kuomintang (KMT), which has a larger number of seats but not enough to form its own majority.
A sign of the violence of the blows exchanged, a DPP elected official – Puma Shen – had to be transported on a stretcher and then taken to the Taiwan University Hospital, reports the Taiwan News. The nature of his injuries was not specified.
The Source of the fight is a reform bill, proposed by the KMT and its allies, including a controversial measure that aims to criminalize officials responsible for making false statements in Parliament, according to The Independent. The DPP, for its part, considers the text as “an abuse of constitutional power”.
This is not the first time that MPs have come to blows in Taiwan’s Parliament, called the Legislative Yuan. They have already jostled and argued several times in recent years, on different subjects.
