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Opposition lawmakers on Wednesday lashed out at President Lai Ching-te after he was a no-show at a hearing on an impeachment initiative directed at him. The Presidential Office explained the Legislative Yuan legally did not have the power to hold a president accountable, and so President Lai declined an invitation from opposition lawmakers to go to the legislature. TPP lawmaker Huang Kuo-chang and the KMT’s Fu Kun-chi flew into a tirade of criticisms of the president, while DPP lawmakers countered that two thirds of votes from the legislature is needed to impeach President Lai, and so the opposition lacks the numbers. The DPP says that’s why it’s all a show to drum up publicity for their candidates in the year-end local elections.

Bringing out life-sized effigies portraying President Lai Ching-te as an emperor of antiquity and self-proclaimed monarch Yuan Shikai, the opposition parties continued with impeachment proceedings on Wednesday. The Legislative Yuan held a plenary hearing and invited President Lai. But the Presidential Office said that Lai would not attend as the Legislative Yuan does not have the authority to hold the president accountable. That only gave opposition politicians more reason to hurl insults at him.

Huang Kuo-chang
TPP caucus convener
Laws passed by the legislature with three readings are not done for any lawmaker’s personal gain. The laws we passed in three readings are related to the allocation of fiscal revenues and expenditures between the central and local governments. As the president is dictatorial, it is the Legislative Yuan’s inescapable responsibility to exercise the power of impeachment in accordance with the Constitution.

Chung Chia-pin
DPP caucus
You can’t get two-thirds of supporting votes before May. How do you think you can do this? If you can’t get two-thirds of impeachment votes now, do you think you can get them before May? You say you’ll go on nationwide speaking tours. Why? To build momentum for the TPP’s mayoral candidates. They are fighting for the mayoral seats of KMT incumbents and yet, you’re foolishly helping them stage this tour, essentially going through the motions for show.

The DPP is criticizing the TPP’s high profile impeachment push, arguing it’s just to get media exposure ahead of the year-end mayoral elections. Furthermore, according to laws governing the Legislative Yuan’s authority, while the legislature has the power to impeach the president, there’s no article stipulating that the president needs to be present. However, KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi paid no attention and lashed out at everything, from US tariffs placed on Taiwan to TSMC’s direct investments in the US.

Fu Kun-chi
KMT caucus whip
He has not only corrupted Taiwan’s democracy and constitutional system, but also destroyed our national security, our defense shield, and our economy, including TSMC, which is our pride and is world renowned. All citizens should join in to impeach Lai Ching-te.

Puma Shen
DPP lawmaker
So it goes like, TSMC does too well, that’s not OK, come here and we’ll question you. You negotiated tariffs well, that’s not OK, come here and we will question you. Today we’ll approve your budget and you still dare to resist coming here and answering questions? What kind of democracy is this? Isn’t the budget session supposed to be about reviewing the budget? The budget has been sitting here since last August. It’s been 146 days, but you are using this impeachment case to put on a political show.

There will be another day of plenary committee meetings on Thursday. Instead of reviewing the general budget, the opposition is dealing with impeachment proceedings that are unlikely to pass. The DPP is questioning whether the KMT and TPP are only focused on political infighting, instead of people’s livelihoods.

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