00:00A second round of recall votes to unseat opposition Kuomintang lawmakers failed Saturday.
00:06And now, the talk within the ruling Democratic Progressive Party is about who should take responsibility.
00:11President Lai Qingde says Zhou Rongtai can stay on as premier.
00:15But some of the cabinet members may go, with a reshuffle possible by the end of the week.
00:30Two leading party lawmakers, Caucus Whip Wu Suyao and Caucus Secretary General Chen Peiyu, are also leaving their roles, though not their seats.
00:52The Democratic Progressive Party has now held the presidency for three terms in a row,
00:56and it's treating the results of Saturday's recall vote as a gauge of public sentiment.
01:16The Kuomintang won a second victory in a row, with Saturday's attempt to remove its lawmakers failing.
01:21And it's buoyed with excitement over the next two big elections, the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential race.
01:30But despite the momentum, it's having a problem of its own, leveraging a rising star.
01:35The person it sees as key to future victories, popular Taichung mayor Lu Xiaoyan, has turned down the job of party chair.
01:43She says she needs to focus on solving her city's economic problems.
01:47While some in the party respect her decision, others say getting Lu to change her mind could be essential to keeping the party's recent successes coming.
01:56But that could be a tall order, and some analysts believe the sitting party chair, Eric Zhu, has tried to discourage Lu,
02:13despite appearing to look forward to passing the torch and his own retirement.
02:17However, when you actually watch the interview, really what it was is a coded message to Lu Xiaoyan.
02:26And what he talked about is the difficulties of the job.
02:29For example, he mentioned that they have over $100 million NT in debt,
02:34and he talked about how difficult it was to raise money,
02:37and he talked about all the difficulties of running the party.
02:40And, you know, reading between the lines, he talked about how it is difficult to organize that many different personalities,
02:49and to be a punching bag through all of it.
02:52Left unsaid were also upcoming legal challenges.
02:56With the recall campaign behind them, both parties are now looking for how to make the best of the outcome.
03:02And the coming days could be consequential for what comes next in Taiwan's hyper-partisan politics.
03:08Chris Ma and John Van Trieste for Taiwan Plus.
Comments