Premier Yu Shyi-kun and his ministers stormed out of the legislature yesterday after two People First Party legislators called the premier a "rascal politician."
The legislative caucuses were unable to reach an agreement yesterday on how to resolve the interruption to the session and will continue negotiations today.
According to the Constitution, the premier is obligated to be available for questioning by legislators about his work. Failure to do so may result in a no-confidence vote and the dismissal of the legislature.
Yu withdrew from the question session after PFP legislators Yang Cheng Chin-ling (鄭金玲) and Chung Shao-ho (鍾紹和) called Yu a "rascal politician," and only took the words back reluctantly after being ordered to do so by deputy legislative speaker Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤).
Yu, saying the charge amounted to character assassination, waved his hand to signal the Cabinet ministers present at the session to leave. Yu and the ministers then moved to the resting area outside the meeting hall, forcing a halt to the session.
Yu left the legislature at around noon and said he would return as soon as the legislature "gave him due fairness."
Yu returned to the legislature in the afternoon but he did not take part in questioning as caucus negotiations had failed.
The DPP caucus said Yu should refuse to take questions from the PFP caucus until the two legislators apologize.
The caucus demanded the two legislators to be sent to the discipline committee, saying they had violated regulations barring character assassination.
Yang Chen and Chung, however, refused to apologize. Led by PFP caucus leader Hsieh Chang-chieh (
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
Wang did not comment on the "rascal politician" incident.
At around 4:20pm, Chiang announced the resumption of the question session.
"Legislators Yang Cheng and Chung and the PFP caucus have officially withdrawn the `rascal' remark, and we hope that government officials and legislators can respect each other -- that the legislators can question officials reasonably, that the officials can answer correctly and that the legislators leave enough time for the officials to explain their policies," Chiang said.
But several DPP legislators questioned Chiang about the apology.
Chiang then announced that the legislators were to take a break again and proceed with further negotiation.
Chiang announced the end of yesterday's session at around 5pm.
"The premier's question session needs further negotiation, and those who haven't finished their questioning will have to wait until Feb. 27," Chiang said.
RSS