Taipei: Taiwan's two major political parties clashed again on Monday over the proposed NT$3.03 trillion central government budget for 2026, with each side blaming the other for the inability to pass it through the Legislative Yuan.
According to Focus Taiwan, opposition Kuomintang (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun attributed the budget stalemate to what she claimed was President Lai Ching-te's disregard for laws approved by the Legislative Yuan. Cheng criticized the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government for blocking legislation, including laws mandating pay raises for active-duty military personnel and reversing pension cuts for civil servants and public school teachers.
Cheng emphasized that military personnel's welfare and honor are crucial for Taiwan's defense, arguing that if President Lai and Premier Cho Jung-tai were genuinely committed to national security, they would support efforts to improve service members' welfare. She asserted that the ruling party's stance had negatively impacted troop morale. Cheng defended the opposition's legislative actions, stating that the KMT and Taiwan People's Party (TPP) lawmakers, who form a majority, acted in good faith and aimed for a smooth constitutional process. However, she accused President Lai of focusing on peripheral issues and fostering conflict by treating the opposition as adversaries.
In response, Wu Cheng, a spokesperson for the ruling DPP, stated that the annual budget, submitted by the Cabinet to the Legislature in August, had been consistently delayed by opposition parties. Wu highlighted that President Lai approved pay raises for voluntary service members in April 2025 and noted that since the DPP assumed power in 2016, salaries for civil servants, military personnel, and public school teachers had been raised four times, compared to a single increase during former President Ma Ying-jeou's tenure. Wu explained that the laws deemed "unconstitutional" by the DPP would have been enforced if ruled constitutional by the Constitutional Court.
DPP legislative caucus leader Chung Chia-pin expressed the party's intention to continue engaging with the opposition and urged them to set aside preconceptions to resolve the budget deadlock. DPP lawmaker Chen Pei-yu warned that failing to pass the budget would disrupt programs like the TPass public transportation initiative and flood control projects, affecting society broadly. The KMT and TPP have enacted legislation expanding the legislative branch's power, altering the Constitutional Court's functioning, and reallocating central government revenues to local governments, all of which the DPP opposed.
The conflict extends to personnel appointments, with President Lai's nominations of seven justices to the Constitutional Court being rejected due to a lack of opposition consultation. The DPP might consider appealing directly to TPP lawmakers to secure budget approval, but the TPP has not yet shown support for the government.