TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Over 15,000 people gathered outside Taiwan’s legislature on Tuesday (May 21) to protest opposition lawmakers' attempts to pass several controversial bills.

The crowds gathered to protest against proposed laws put forth by the Kuomintang (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who together hold a majority of legislative seats. The controversy involves bills seeking to increase the legislature's power relative to the president and broaden its oversight and investigative powers over government agencies and public officials.

Initial attempts to pass the bills on Friday were blocked by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers, culminating in physical altercations that injured a few lawmakers. Protests continued on Tuesday as the legislature reconvened, with crowds rallying against what they say is a lack of parliamentary oversight and willful skirting of procedure.

Crowds first started arriving outside the Legislative Yuan in the early morning and protested peacefully until past midnight when the legislative session adjourned. Calls of “no discussions, no democracy” and “review the bill again” were repeated by crowds throughout the day as protestors slammed the KMT and TPP, and called on Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) to step down.

By the time lawmakers entered the last hour of discussions, protestors had mostly filled three roads around the legislature, and further stages for speakers were built as the crowd swelled. Heavy downpours fell between 7 and 8 p.m. and the nearby Chi-Nan Presbyterian Church opened its doors to protestors, live-streaming speeches inside until about 9.30 p.m.

The first stage for speakers was set up in the morning along Qingdao East Road, where organizers centered. Fanning out north and south along Zhongshan South Road and eventually Jinan Road, organizers of the protest set up “soapbox” stages for members of the public to speak.

The crowd was estimated at between 15,000 and 20,000, and was overwhelmingly made up of young people. DPP legislators acknowledged that young people were the driving force behind the protest during the plenary session, encouraging their participation in democracy.

Taiwanese drag queen Nymphia Wind also attended the protest during the day. Calling on legislators to respect the democratic process, she wore a banner stating: “Taiwan is mine.”

A man in his forties surnamed Huang (黃) left Kaohsiung at 6 p.m. on Tuesday to join the protests, and told Taiwan News he came to oppose what he called “illegal” actions by the KMT and TPP in the legislature. He said he believes both parties are trying to abuse their majority position in the legislature to impose “unreasonable” laws on Taiwan and “hollow out the country.”

Meanwhile, a student of New Taipei’s National Taiwan University of Arts surnamed Ing (英) said he came to support calls for greater transparency. He said in a democracy everything should be discussed openly, and he is against attempts by lawmakers to rush bills through.

“We should have a proper discussion, and take our time. (The content of the bills) should be listed out, for everyone to see: only then should we move to the next step,” Ying said.

Some members of the public who took to the stage to speak drew parallels between the situation and Beijing’s influence in Hong Kong’s legislature. Taiwan News spoke to one Hong Konger at the protest who said he joined because he does not want to see what happened there repeated in Taiwan.

Some protestors also carried sunflowers, in reference to the watershed Sunflower Movement that occurred 10 years earlier. The Sunflower Movement likewise protested attempts by the KMT to pass legislation under urgency, that protestors said went against Taiwan’s democratic systems.

In addition to speaker Han, TPP Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) was the target of frequent criticism from protestors. Huang’s prominent role in the Sunflower Movement was compared to his current role as the TPP’s caucus chair, while protestors and DPP legislators labeled him a “hypocrite (僞君子)”  

The legislature concluded its session at 11:45 p.m., after which DPP lawmakers came out and greeted crowds from a balcony above the main protest stage. Puma Shen (沈伯洋), Hung Sun-han (洪申翰), Kuo Kuo-wen (郭國文), Wang Ting-yu (王定宇), and others collectively thanked the protestors for turning out.

The legislature reconvenes on Friday (May 24) to continue to discuss the bills. One of the main organizing groups, the Taiwan Economic Democracy Union (台灣經濟民主連合), encouraged crowds to return Friday to continue their protests against the bills.