DPP scholars and lawmakers met yesterday to map out a strategy for forming a coalition government -- an idea that would most likely involve cooperation with the KMT, the People First Party (PFP) or both.
Any coalition would likely come after the year-end legislative elections, which are expected to leave none of the three dominant parties with a majority of seats in the legislature.
Many DPP members see the anticipated shake-up in the Legislative Yuan as an opportunity to team up with opposition members who share similar ideals, thereby giving the DPP greater leverage in its dealings with the legislature.
You Ying-lung (
By his estimates, the DPP is likely to capture 85 seats in the legislative elections, the KMT 75 seats, the PFP 40 seats and the New Party seven seats, with 18 seats going to independent legislators. "After the December elections, the best option for the party would be to form a `super-stable' coalition government, which is centered on President Chen Shui-bian (
You said the DPP should include members from at least two major parties -- the KMT and PFP -- in its coalition to counter any potential threat to its government. From across the aisle, members of the KMT, the PFP and the New Party have been discussing an alliance, the so called "pan blue camp."
You also said that the "grand" coalition government should distribute Cabinet positions based on each party's share of seats in the legislature. The academic suggested that the coalition government could serve a two-year term with either a DPP or non-DPP premier.
But the host of yesterday's seminar, lawmaker Shen Fu-hsiung (
Shen said that an alliance with just one other major party would produce enough legislative seats to command a majority. Shen had previously advocated forming a coalition government with the KMT.
Julian Kuo (
Kuo said that a coalition would be politically unfeasible given the differences between the DPP and other parties. A better idea, he said, was to "dismiss" the DPP party next year, regroup and draft a new party platform -- with an eye toward re-registering the party's old members and drawing in new members from other parties. Kuo said his "dismissal-and-expansion" plan could be put into effect in June next year, in time for the DPP's National Congress meeting. But there were many naysayers who doubted Kuo's idea would work.
Still, Kuo pushed the concept, noting that Japan's Liberal Democratic Party was the result of the successful merger of the Liberal Party and the Democratic Party in 1955. Concluding yesterday's discussions, DPP Chairman Frank Hsieh (
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
STILL ON THE TABLE: The government is not precluding advanced nuclear power generation if it is proven safer and the nuclear waste issue is solved, the premier said Taiwan is willing to be in step with the world by considering new methods of nuclear energy generation and to discuss alternative approaches to provide more stable power generation and help support industries, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. The government would continue to develop diverse and green energy solutions, which include considering advances in nuclear energy generation, he added. Cho’s remarks echoed President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments in an interview last month, saying the government is not precluding “advanced and newer nuclear power generation” if it is proven to be safer and the issue of nuclear waste is resolved. Lai’s comment had
‘BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS’: The US military’s aim is to continue to make any potential Chinese invasion more difficult than it already is, US General Ronald Clark said The likelihood of China invading Taiwan without contest is “very, very small” because the Taiwan Strait is under constant surveillance by multiple countries, a US general has said. General Ronald Clark, commanding officer of US Army Pacific (USARPAC), the US Army’s largest service component command, made the remarks during a dialogue hosted on Friday by Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked by the event host what the Chinese military has learned from its US counterpart over the years, Clark said that the first lesson is that the skill and will of US service members are “unmatched.” The second
STANDING TOGETHER: Amid China’s increasingly aggressive activities, nations must join forces in detecting and dealing with incursions, a Taiwanese official said Two senior Philippine officials and one former official yesterday attended the Taiwan International Ocean Forum in Taipei, the first high-level visit since the Philippines in April lifted a ban on such travel to Taiwan. The Ocean Affairs Council hosted the two-day event at the National Taiwan University Hospital International Convention Center. Philippine Navy spokesman Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, Coast Guard spokesman Grand Commodore Jay Tarriela and former Philippine Presidential Communications Office assistant secretary Michel del Rosario participated in the forum. More than 100 officials, experts and entrepreneurs from 15 nations participated in the forum, which included discussions on countering China’s hybrid warfare
RSS