Violence breaks out in chaotic Taiwanese parliament

Taiwan’s parliament descended into a brawl on Friday just days before the inauguration of Lai Ching-te, the new president. Politicians pushed, hit and tackled each other, clambering across tables as they swarmed around the speaker’s seat in the legislative chamber after tempers became heated in a bitter dispute about parliamentary reforms. The argument broke out over a push by the main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), and its allies, to give parliament greater powers of scrutiny over the government. This includes a controversial move to criminalise officials who are deemed to make false statements in parliament – a proposal which has been rejected by Mr Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) as “an unconstitutional abuse of power”. The unruly scenes are likely to add to speculation that Mr Lai will face a tougher challenge than President Tsai Ing-wen, his predecessor, in gaining support for his legislative policies after he takes office. Read more here: https://www.