TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Lawmakers clashed in Taiwan's legislature Friday when members of a leading political party who had broken into the building overnight to occupy the speaker's chair tussled with members of another major party who forced their way in to evict them.
Some lawmakers were injured in the clash, according to Taiwan media reports.
At issue are three bills being pushed by the Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, including one that critics say would paralyze the Constitutional Court.
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party removed windows to get into the building Thursday night and take over the speaker's area, piling up a wall of chairs to block access, Taiwan's Central News Agency said.
Photos and videos of the morning clash showed a crush of lawmakers pushing and shoving each other as Nationalist members barged in en masse to take control and allow the speaker, Han Kuo-yu, take his position. No details were immediately available on the injuries.
The Democratic Progressive Party, known as the DPP, was attempting to block any votes on the bills. Neither they nor the Nationalists, known as the KMT, won a majority in the last legislative election, but the KMT has teamed up with a minor party to take control of the legislature. Taiwan's president, Lai Ching-te, is from the DPP.
A DPP leader said in a social media video Thursday night that the party's actions were extreme but that it had no other options, the Central News Agency reported. Negotiations on the bills have failed to resolve differences between the parties.
Besides restricting the court, the bills would make a public recall of elected officials more difficult and redistribute tax revenues by giving a larger share to local governments.
Thousands of DPP supporters protested outside the legislature on Thursday night and Friday.
Lawmakers in Taiwan have brawled in the past. In 2020, they threw pig guts at each other over a government decision to lift a ban on the import of U.S. pork and beef.
