People First Party (Taiwan)

The People First Party (PFP, ) is a centrist or centre-right political party in Taiwan.

The party was founded by James Soong in March 2000 after his failed independent presidential bid earlier in the January 2000 presidential election; Soong was previously expelled from the Kuomintang after launching an independent bid. In the 2001 legislative election, it became the third-largest party in the Legislative Yuan.In the 2004 presidential election, the KMT-PFP joint ticket of Lien Chan and James Soong narrowly lost to President Chen Shui-bian. In the 2008 legislative election, the party lost all but one of its seats, though it rebounded to three seats in the 2012 legislative election.

Soong ran again in the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections, gathering 2.77% and 12.84% of the vote respectively. In 2020, Soong announced his last presidential bid; he lost the election with a vote share of 4.26%. In the concurrent 2020 legislative election, the PFP lost all of its seats in the Legislative Yuan.

History
The PFP was founded by James Soong and his supporters after his failed independent bid for the presidency in 2000. Soong was previously a member of the Kuomintang but was expelled from the party after he announced an independent presidential bid. Soong himself is the chairman, and dominates much of its politics. The name of the party, People First (親民), has Confucian connotations.

The party maintains a close but tense relationship with the Kuomintang (KMT) as part of the pan-blue coalition. However, since PFP had, like the New Party, grown out of the KMT, the two parties had to compete for the same set of voters. This dynamic in which both the KMT and PFP must simultaneously compete and cooperate with each other has led to complex and interesting politics.

In several notable cases, this has led to situations in which both parties have run candidates, but close to the election the party with the less popular candidate unofficially dropped out of the race. This in turn has led to some notable situations when either the PFP or the KMT has campaigned against its own candidate, which has led to intra-party resentment.

To avoid a repeat of this effect, which led to the election of Democratic Progressive Party candidate Chen Shui-bian to the presidency in 2000 by a low share of votes, Chairman Soong ran as vice-president on KMT Chairman Lien Chan's presidential ticket in the 2004 presidential election.

After his defeat in the Taipei mayoral elections held on 9 December 2006, Soong announced that he would retire from politics. At this point, with no clear goals, the PFP faced an uncertain future, and considered merging with the Kuomintang (KMT). After much negotiation, the PFP and the KMT did not merge.

Presidential bids
In September 2011, James Soong mounted the PFP's first presidential bid and selected academic Ruey-Shiung Lin to be his running mate for the 2012 election, collecting enough signatures to make it on the ballot. While analysts feared that a PFP run would split the Pan-Blue Coalition vote and hand a winnable election to the DPP (as was the case in the 2000 Presidential election), Soong insisted that his campaign was a serious one and that he would complete his run. On election day, the Soong-Lin ticket underperformed and garnered 2.77% of votes, while Ma Ying-jeou of the KMT defeated Tsai Ing-wen of the DPP by a margin of 51.60% to 45.63%. In the concurrent legislative election the PFP won 5.46% of the party-list vote, gaining them two seats in the Legislative Yuan, and in addition won one district seat for a total of three seats.

Soong would launch presidential bids in 2016 and 2020 as well. In 2016, he would garner 12.84% of the vote, compared with 31.04% going to Eric Chu of the KMT and 56.12% going to Tsai Ing-wen of the DPP. In 2020 he would garner 4.26% of the vote, compared with 38.61% going to Han Kuo-yu of the KMT and 57.13% going to Tsai Ing-wen of the DPP. In 2016, they would maintain their seats in the legislature; however, in 2020, the PFP failed to meet the 5% threshold for party-list representation and also did not win any district seats, and was no longer represented in the Legislative Yuan. Prior to the election result in 2020, James Soong announced that his 2020 bid would be his last, throwing the future of the party into question.

Political positions
The People First Party is considered to be to be a centrist or centre-right political party.

The official goals of PFP, as regards to cross-strait relationships and diplomacy, is for the ROC to: participate in more international organizations, promote Chinese culture overseas and seek economic and cultural interaction between Taiwan and the mainland. Its views are seen as generally favorable towards Chinese unification and staunchly against Taiwan independence.