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TAIPEI (Reuters) – Lawmakers from Taiwan’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), threw guts and exchanged blows with other lawmakers in parliament on Friday as they tried to prevent the prime minister from answering questions, in a bitter dispute over easing of American pork imports.
President Tsai Ing-wen announced in August that the government would allow, as of January 1, imports of US pork that contains ractopamine, an additive that enhances thinness but is banned in the European Union and China, as well as American beef for more than 30 months. old.
While it was welcomed in Washington and removed an obstacle to a US free trade agreement for Taiwan, the KMT has strongly opposed the decision, capitalizing on public concern over food safety after several high-profile scandals in recent years. years.
Since the last session of parliament began in mid-September, the KMT has protested the pig’s decision by preventing Prime Minister Su Tseng-chang from delivering regular reports and answering questions by taking the podium where he speaks.
Fed up with the paralysis, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) decided they were going to make sure Su could speak on Friday, and formed a protective barrier around her as she pushed through, while KMT lawmakers blew whistles, held banners and sounded. air horns.
As Su began to speak, KMT lawmakers threw buckets of pig guts at her and some exchanged blows, with a brief but cruel encounter between a group of KMT lawmakers and Chen Po-wei from the small Taiwan State Building Party.
Su soon pulled out, but then got back up to try to answer questions, his words drowned out by KMT lawmakers.
The DPP condemned the protests, saying in a statement that throwing away the pork guts was a waste of food that “stunk” the parliament and was “disgusting”, calling for a return to rational debate.
The KMT says the decision on the pork was rushed and is a health threat, the charges the DPP denies.
“To protect people’s health and protect food security, the opposition party cannot help but resist,” the KMT said of Friday’s protest.
Taiwan is a bustling democracy and fighting is not uncommon in parliament.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Michael Perry)
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