With less than 50 days to go until the end of the year election, politicians from the blue camp have repeatedly mentioned last year's general recall, calling the "ocean current" set off by Democratic Progressive Party's Taipei mayoral candidate Shen Boyang "recall 2.0" in the hope of consolidating the base, impressing neutral voters who are waiting to see, and boosting turnout.
Since taking office, KMT Chairman Cheng Lai-wen has criticized the DPP on many occasions for being unwilling to lose and unable to afford the defeat. It uses political mobilization to remove people and tear society apart, and has also caused many party workers to be involved in lawsuits for no reason. In a recent exclusive interview with Japanese media, she pointed out that the overall failure of last year's general recall reflected voters' aversion to political manipulation; using oppositional emotions for electoral gain will only push Taiwan into a more dangerous situation.
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When Legislative President Han Kuo-yu delivered his speech as chairman of the National Day Convention on the 10th, he criticized the ruling party off-script, saying that we now see cracks in Taiwan's democracy. In last year's general recall, all the regional legislators of the opposition parties were tied up. This is not democracy, it is completely a political hunt. This year we have seen another crisis.
Yesterday in Keelung, Hanguo-yu also reiterated the recall of Keelung Mayor Xie Guoliang and legislator Lin Peixiang. He said that Taiwan's democracy is mature and great. "My heart is very guilty." Recalls occur everywhere, including failure to countersign. Teachers of the Constitution can no longer teach the Constitution. These are all anti-democratic. No matter how much the ruling party and the opposition quarrel, there will always be certain rules of the game, compromises and moral standards.
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wanan and his campaign have mentioned general recall or "General Recall 2.0" more than once recently. Chiang Wanan's campaign recently announced that five KMT Taipei City legislators have joined the campaign's speech lineup. The campaign pointed out at the time that Cao Xingcheng, the leader of the past general recall, publicly called for a recall to support Shen Boyang, and the political atmosphere of "General Recall 2.0" has reappeared. Faced with familiar political maneuvers, the five Taipei Kuomintang legislators who had jointly defeated the evil strike gathered together and turned their experience of defeating hate mobilization and refusing to tear society apart a year ago into electoral strength.
When Jiang Wanan was asked a few days ago about his close support for Shen Boyang, he mentioned that the atmosphere of the general recall last year was that society was completely torn apart. "I have never felt that voters in Taiwan, or even Taipei, would become so irrational." His words were questioned as "reviewing the voters." Afterward, Chiang clarified that the people's voice was absolutely the most important. Everyone must be humble before public opinion. He would respect all data and be wary of fear.
In addition, a Taiwanese fan held up a towel with the word "Taiwan" in support of him at the Nagoya Asian Games but was stopped. Two days later, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wanan posted a statement on social media, saying that cheering for Taiwan should not become a taboo. He was questioned as being a fan, and was asked by Shen Boyang, "Team Taiwan does not require an apology in the first place. I am not sure why I want to talk about this in particular?" Chiang Wanan later responded that the usual tactic of general ousting is to uncover rumors one after another, and that loving Taiwan is definitely not the patent of the Democratic Progressive Party.
Taichung Mayor Lu Hsiu-yan also pointed out in August that this year’s election situation across Taiwan was deserted from north to south, because after the general recall, the people showed their anger and retained local legislators, but the Lai government has not changed, and the people can do nothing. Lu Xiuyan called for the year 2026 to be the year when the government will be overthrown by the whole people, and the year 2028 when the people will be against the government. Only by allowing the country to be governed by a better team can the country and society progress.
In an interview in September, Lu Xiuyan said that she originally thought that after the failure of the general recall, the ruling party would be able to reflect on reforms, but now it seems that the situation is even worse, even because with the local elections approaching, the ruling party is doing everything it can to tear Taiwan apart, become more confrontational, and even more manipulative. It feels like the 2.0 of the general recall. She emphasized that she did not want this year’s local elections to turn into a general recall 2.0, including manipulation, attacks, and witch hunting.
