Taiwan’s political impasse

• President Lai Ching-te’s second year in office has been marked by a rocky start, with a recall campaign facing legislators of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Kuomintang (KMT).

• The DPP has failed to achieve a majority in the Legislative Yuan, with 52 seats won by the KMT and 51 by the DPP.

• The KMT has blocked vital steps to secure Taiwan’s internal democratic and legal processes, as well as its defense preparedness.

• The KMT pushed amendments to the ‘Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures’, restricting the central government’s budgetary decision-making powers, especially in the defence sector.

• KMT and TPP lawmakers proposed making the president-elect mandatory to address the Yuan postinauguration, a proposal that led to scuffles in the Yuan.

• DPP lawmakers have alleged that the KMT introduced amendments to laws on the legislature’s powers without going through mandatory processes.

• The ideological and political rift is evident in a series of recall campaigns targeting as many as 37 KMT legislators and 15 DPP ones.

• The transformation of this legislative deadlock into a mass recall campaign means that democracy is alive through the exercise of citizens’ rights to re-election, but also means that even KMT lawmakers who won a majority in the 2024 elections are losing hold of their electorate.

• The KMT’s narrative and pitch have been unappealing with changing sentiments among the youth, even though they won Yuan seats due to dissatisfaction with the DPP’s economic and diplomatic performance during Ms. Tsai’s two tenures before Mr. Lai.