Four legislators yesterday announced the launch of a new legislative caucus — the Legislative Yuan New Alliance (LYNA, 立院新聯盟) — vowing to serve as the “adhesive” between the pan-green and pan-blue political camps.
The group’s four founding members are two legislators from the People First Party (PFP) — Thomas Lee (李桐豪) and Chen Yi-chieh (陳怡潔) — as well as Non-Partisan Solidarity Union Legislator May Chin (高金素梅) and Legislator Hsu Hsin-ying (徐欣瑩) a former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member.
Lee, the convener of the group, said the new caucus would focus on reforms to the Constitution, as well as an oversight bill to monitor future cross-strait treaties.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Although all four members of the LYNA have traditionally been affiliated with the pan-blue camp, the group said it welcomed members of both the blue and green camps to join their discussions.
Hsu made headlines last month when she announced her withdrawal from the KMT, saying that she wanted to present an alternative option to the public as an independent.
Hsu said that the public was primarily against the proposed cross-strait service trade agreement because it was perceived as a “black box” deal that bypassed legislative deliberation.
She said that both major political camps should discuss potential cross-strait treaties in detail in a way that is acceptable to the public.
She added that Taiwan could not afford to cut off economic relations with China.
Chen said Taiwan should not boycott cross-strait trade pacts, but evaluate each clause carefully.
Greenpeace yesterday said that it is to appeal a decision last month by the Taipei High Administrative Court to dismiss its 2021 lawsuit against the Ministry of Economic Affairs over “loose” regulations governing major corporate electricity consumers. The climate-related lawsuit — the first of its kind in Taiwan — sought to require the government to enforce higher green energy thresholds on major corporations to reduce emissions in light of climate change and an uptick in extreme weather. The suit, filed by Greenpeace East Asia, the Environmental Jurists Association and four individual plaintiffs, was dismissed on May 8 following four years of litigation. The
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