Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday congratulated former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) on her election as KMT chairwoman, saying he had already begun discussing opportunities for deeper cooperation between the opposition parties.
Cheng on Saturday defeated five other candidates, including her main competitor, two-time Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌). She is set to begin her four year term on Saturday next week, when she succeeds Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫).
Speaking to reporters at an event in New Taipei City, Huang said he had called Cheng and the other KMT contenders after the election results were announced, and had wished her luck in her new role.
Photo: Yu Chao-fu, Taipei Times
“As far as the TPP is concerned, [Taiwanese] society has been torn apart by President William Lai (賴清德),” Huang said. “We need to end the division and conflict.”
“The TPP is willing to work with maximum sincerity and goodwill to create a unity government, even if we do not always agree with or even like our partners,” he said.
Huang said that he spoke with former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on Saturday night regarding the steps and timeframe for achieving a unity government.
Any such union would be based on shared values rather than just divvying up spots in government, Huang added.
An alliance between the two opposition parties was first floated in 2023 in the run-up to last year’s presidential election, when the TPP and KMT presidential candidates — Ko and New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) — came under pressure to run on a joint ticket. Negotiations ultimately fell apart less than two months before the election, as neither candidate was willing to take the vice presidential slot.
However, the results of the election on Jan. 13 last year suggested that a joint ticket might have been successful, as Lai of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won with 40.05 percent of the vote, followed by Hou with 33.49 percent and Ko with 26.46 percent.
Despite that failure, the KMT and TPP have joined forces in the legislature, where they hold a combined majority of the 113 seats.
Many of the candidates in the KMT leadership election, including Cheng, have said they support deepening ties between the opposition parties.
Regarding such cooperation in next year’s local elections, Huang on Saturday told reporters that that Cheng’s previous criticism of Ko and her insistence that the KMT must continue to hold the mayoral seat in New Taipei City would not present any obstacles to the TPP and KMT joining forces.
“For a mature politician, there is nothing that you cannot let go of for the sake of Taiwan and its people,” said Huang, who in August indicated that he plans to run for New Taipei City mayor next year.
“We turned the page on that [criticism of Ko] long ago,” he said.
In his remarks, Huang twice referenced coalition talks in Japan’s government by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, saying it was a “mature expression of democracy.”
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