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 ==