In the victory of the opposition Kuomintang party, the impact of the covid has prevailed more than its proximity to China
After a long campaign that has filled Taiwan with posters and colorful rallies for the last month, the municipal elections this Saturday have dealt a heavy blow to the sovereign government of this island, independent ‘de facto’ but claimed by China. Led by President Tsai Ing-wen, the Democratic Progressive Party (PDP) suffers a serious setback at the hands of the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party, which wins in 13 of the 21 competing cities and counties, including four of the six largest areas metropolitan Taiwan.
Among them are the capital, Taipei, which the KMT recovered after eight years thanks to the candidacy of Chiang Wan-an, great-grandson of the dictator Chiang Kai-shek, who fled to Taiwan after losing the civil war against the communist revolutionary Mao Zedong in 1949. Also known as Wayne Chiang for having educated and worked in the United States, he will be the youngest mayor of Taipei at 43 years old and drags a stormy family drama. His father, Vice Premier Chiang Hsiao-yen, is the illegitimate son of Chiang Kai-shek’s eldest son, making him the new heir to this long political dynasty but not by the official branch.
If Chiang Wan-an and the KMT emerge as the big winners on election night, the unmitigated defeat is President Tsai Ing-wen. After his overwhelming re-election in January 2020, when he benefited from the Chinese repression in Hong Kong and achieved a record of more than eight million votes, Tsai had raised these elections as a plebiscite on his management and, above all, on his marked sovereignist discourse against the demand of Beijing. This is how she raised it on Thursday in a video to the electorate, in which she appealed to Taiwanese patriotism in the face of the reunification that the Chinese regime proclaims and the rapprochement with the continent that the KMT champions.
strong restrictions
But, according to most political analysts, in the defeat of Tsai’s party, the impact of the covid has prevailed more than relations with mainland China. Although Taiwan was one of the countries that best controlled the pandemic after its outbreak in Wuhan in January 2020, its strong restrictions until the beginning of this year greatly damaged the economy and its reopening since May has triggered mortality. After six years in power, and with a pandemic involved, the PDP should have done very well so as not to suffer political wear and tear from the electorate.
Even so, the green party retains its strongholds in the south of the island, Tainan and Kaohsiung, in the face of the overwhelming blue victory of the KMT. Although it does not serve as consolation in the face of defeat, the PDP seizes the islands of Kinmen and Penghu, the closest to China, from the KMT, after the military tension last summer due to the visit of the speaker of the US House of Representatives , Nancy Pelosi.
Assuming her defeat, President Tsai Ing-wen resigned as the head of the PDP, which must seek a candidate to win back the electorate for the 2024 general elections. For that next appointment, this victory gives wings to the KMT, whose president, Eric Chu, prefers to be cautious because the same thing happened in the 2018 municipal elections. That year, the government was defeated and then swept the 2020 presidential elections by benefiting from anti-China sentiment for the crushing of Hong Kong protests demanding democracy, which in Taiwan was seen as a prelude to his intentions on this island that he considers “rebellious”. There is still more than a year to go before the general elections and, as things are, in the Strait of Formosa anything can happen.
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