In response to Premier Cho Jung-tai’s (卓榮泰) decision on Dec. 15 not to countersign amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) and other bills passed by the Legislative Yuan, the blue and white bloc accused President William Lai (賴清德) of “dictatorship” and “constitutional violations.” As legislators, they have the constitutionally enshrined right to call a vote of no confidence to check the power of the premier, but they shrink from using it. If passed, such a vote would force the premier to resign, and the president to dissolve the Legislative Yuan and call new elections — something, it seems, that the opposition would rather not do, preferring to cling to their seats.
The collapse of Germany’s coalition government in February last year could provide a reference point for how a no-confidence motion and early elections could be held to seek a renewed public mandate. The German parliament elected in 2021 was meant to serve a full term until September. However, the Bundestag in February held snap elections, seven months short of the full term.
The reason was simple. Then-German chancellor Olaf Scholz of the Social Democratic Party, leader of the coalition government, in late 2024 found himself at loggerheads with then-German minister of finance Christian Lindner of the Free Democratic Party over budgets, borrowing and taxation.
Cooperation was no longer possible, Scholz said, before announcing that he would fire Lindner on Nov. 6, 2024, with the pair publicly trading accusations and assigning blame.
Scholz’s announcement came just hours after news broke of US President Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 US presidential election, a moment of deep political uncertainty globally. Scholz understood that Germany could not afford to exhaust its political energy with internal conflicts, and that public opinion sought a reset of parliament now that his governing coalition was in the minority.
His original calculation was to push through several key bills before later proposing a motion of no confidence, ostensibly to avoid dissolving parliament right before Christmas and disrupting the holiday atmosphere.
However, sensing a shift in public sentiment and the urgency of the situation, Scholz ultimately proposed the motion on Dec. 11 that year, triggering the collapse of his government. The elections that followed allowed a new government to form with an updated mandate from the public.
This same constitutional right to seek a no-confidence vote is well within the arsenal of Taiwan’s blue and white-camp legislators, who claim to disagree so resolutely with Cho’s refusal to countersign legislation. Why do they not use it?
The only plausible conclusion is that they are uncertain of the results and would rather deliberately drag Taiwan into internal strife while hanging on to their seats in parliament. Their greed and unwillingness to stand the test of public opinion means they are entirely undeserving of respect and incapable of earning trust.
Liou Uie-liang is a medical worker and author based in Germany.
Translated by Gilda Knox Streader
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