Time.news – Political earthquake in Taiwan, where the Kuomintang, the Nationalist Party on positions conciliatory with China, triumphs in the local elections, winning, with counting still in progress, 13 of the 22 between cities and counties where voting was held today. The President of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, acknowledged the defeat of her partythe Democratic-Progressive Party, in the evening, and announced his resignation as leader of the Dpp.
Besides Tsai, too Taiwan Prime Minister Su Tseng-chang verbally announced his resignation, but Tsai asked him to stay to ensure continuity of government action. Tsai “humbly” accepted the results of the local elections and the decisions of the people of Taiwan, Taiwan’s Central News Agency reports, and takes “full responsibility” for the defeat, resigning “with immediate effect” from the Democratic Party leadership- progressive.
The Kuomintang established itself in the capital, Taipei, with the victory of the candidate Chiang Wan-an, “new face” of the Nationalist Party and descendant of Chiang Kai-shek, the founder of the Republic of China, in Taiwan, after the defeat in the war civilian against Maoist troops.
Chiang announced his victory in the evening, with 42.46% of the votes obtained in the race for the highest seat in the capital, ahead of 31.76% of the votes for the main challenger, the former Minister of Health and Welfare, Chen Shih-chung, who has led the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic in Taiwan , and supported by Tsai herself: Chen acknowledged defeat and congratulated the young challenger (44 next month).
The Kuomintang also asserted itself in other major centers in Taiwan, including New Taipei, Taichung and Taoyuan, while the DPP won in Kaohsiung, the port city in southwest Taiwan, Tainan and other smaller cities and counties.
In addition to the defeat of his party, Tsai also suffers from the failure of the referendum for the lowering of the age for the right to vote to 18, viewed with strong suspicion by Beijing, for the risk that it could open up to further constitutional changes in the future: with 98% of the seats counted, there are only just over 5 .4 million yes to the abolition of article 130 of the Constitution, out of the more than 9.6 million votes in favour.
Although focused on local issues, today’s local elections test Taiwan’s political pulse just over a year before the presidential and legislative elections at the beginning of 2024, and mark a return of the Nationalist Party, with a more conciliatory tone with Beijing than the line law adopted by the DPP and the President of Taiwan.
Tsai’s resignation from the top of the party was also relaunched by the Chinese agency Xinhua, even if China has not commented, for now, on the outcome of the administrations: Beijing has never hidden its intolerance towards the president of Taiwan and her party, which Beijing accuses of “separatism”.
During Tsai’s double mandate at the helm of Taiwan, China has increased economic, diplomatic and military pressure on the island over which it claims sovereignty: the tensions reached a climax last August, after the speaker’s visit to Taipei of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, to which Beijing responded with seven days of massive military exercises around the island and closing various channels of communication and cooperation with the United States.