New Power Party (NPP) Chairman Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) and Social Democratic Party (SDP) convener Fan Yun (范雲) yesterday said the two parties share the goal of safeguarding and reforming Taiwan and that they hope to collaborate at the legislature.
The two made the remarks at a news conference at Taipei City Councilor Miao Po-ya’s (苗博雅) office in Taipei’s Wenshan District (文山).
Meeting with the SDP is the first step in the NPP’s plan to establish cooperation with other pan-green parties, Hsu said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“I hope we can introduce a new form of cross-party cooperation that focuses on promoting reforms,” he said.
The NPP hopes to promote reforms such as lowering the threshold for political parties to receive state subsidies and following through on constitutional amendments that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) proposed in 2017, Hsu said.
Tsai had advocated lowering the voting age from 20 to 18 and reviewing the Constitution’s articles on human rights, he said.
While the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has described its primary goal in next year’s presidential and legislative elections as protecting Taiwan against China, the NPP’s goal is to defend and reform Taiwan, Hsu said.
“Supporting reforms should not be incompatible with the DPP’s goal of protecting Taiwan against China,” he said. “If President Tsai wants the NPP’s support, her administration should begin forming a constitutional amendment committee at the legislature.”
Hsu hopes to meet with DPP Chairman Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) next week to discuss cooperating, he said, adding that he also plans to meet with the Taiwan Action Party Alliance.
Hsu’s goals of safeguarding Taiwan and amending the Constitution and election laws are in line with what the SDP has been doing since its foundation in 2015, Fan said.
Protecting the nation and its democracy is the SDP’s most important goal in the coming elections, she added.
“The meeting [with Hsu] was a good start,” she said, adding that she hopes to continue communicating with the NPP to discuss how they can cooperate.
While the NPP has expressed its support for Fan running for a legislative seat from a constituency in Taipei’s Daan District (大安), she said she would also ask other pan-green parties to pool their votes to support her.
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