The Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra apologized on Thursday for a leaked call with the former Cambodian leader Hun sen, who caused widespread anger and brought her government to the brink of collapse.
Their main coalition partner has terminated and calls increase the calls to make a choice or to give it known, and puts the kingdom into a new round of political instability to increase its stuttering economy and avoid the vibrating trade tariffs of US President Donald Trump.
The conservative Bhumjaithai party pulled out on Wednesday that Paetongtarn’s behavior in the leaked call had violated the country and the dignity of the army.
When the pressure on Thursday at a press conference together with military chiefs and high -ranking personalities of her Pheu Thai party, the daughter of Thaksin Shinawatra – has unfolded Thailand’s most influential but most controversial, controversial modern politician.
“I would like to apologize for the leaked audio of my conversation with a Cambodian leader who caused public resentment,” Paetongtarn told reporters.
In the call, Paetongtarn is discussed with a ongoing border dispute with Hun sen, which after four decades has resigned as a Cambodian prime minister, but still has significant influence.
She speaks to the veteran leader as a “uncle” and refers to the Thai army commander in the northeast of the country as her opponent, a remark that triggered violent criticism on social media.
The loss of Bhumjaithai’s 69 MPs left Paetongtarn votes hardly enough to scratch a majority in parliament, and a snap selection looks a clear option – two years after the last in May 2023.
Two other coalition parties, the United Thai Nation and Democrat Party, will stop meetings to discuss the situation later on Thursday.
Paetongtarn will hope that your apology and show of the unit will be sufficient with the military to convince you to stay on board.
The loss would probably mean the end of the government of Paetongtarn and either a choice or an offer from other parties to summarize a new coalition.
Resignation calls
The Thailand military said in a statement that the general of the army confirms Pana Claewplodtook “The Commitment to Democratic Principles and the Protection of National Sovereignty”.
“The head of the army emphasized that the greatest imperative is that” Thai people have united “to defend national sovereignty together,” he added.
Thailand’s armed forces have long played a powerful role in the politics of the kingdom, and politicians usually make sure not to antagonize them.
The kingdom has had a dozen coups since the end of the absolute monarchy in 1932, and the current crisis has inevitably triggered rumors that someone else could possibly be able.
If Paetongtarn is displaced in a coup, she would be the third member of her family after her aunt Yingluck and Father Thaksin Shinawatra were to be thrown out of office by the military.
The most important opposition party, which most seats won in 2023, but was blocked by conservative senators from the establishment of a government, asked Paetongtarn to name an election.
“What happened yesterday was a leadership crisis that destroyed people’s trust,” said the party leader of the folk celebration, Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut.
The Palang Palang Palang, which the government led until 2023 and was managed by General Prawit Wongsuwan – who supported a coup against Paetongtarn’s Aunt Yingluck in 2014 – showed that it was weak and inexperienced to master the country’s security.
Hundreds of anti-government demonstrators, some of them veterans of the royalists, anti-Haksin-yellow shirt movement of the late 2000s, demonstrated on Thursday outside the government house and demanded that Paetongtarn had ended.
Unpleasant coalition
In August 2024, the 38-year-old Paetongtarn came at the head of a restless coalition between Pheu Thai and a group of conservative, military parties, whose members fought a large part of the past 20 years against their father.
Last week, the growing tensions within the coalition broke out into open warfare when Pheu Thai tried to take the Interior Minister Job from Bhumjaithai leader Anutin Charnvirakul.
The loss of Bhumjaithai leaves the coalition of Pheu Thai with only a handful of more votes than the 248, which are required for a majority.
The struggle between the conservative pro-royal establishment and the political movement of Thaksin has been dominating Thai politics for more than 20 years.
The former owner of Manchester City, Thaaksin, 75, still enjoys enormous support from the rural base, whose life has transformed in the early 2000s with populist guidelines.
But he is despised by Thailand’s powerful elites who saw his rule as corrupt, authoritarian and socially destabilized.
The currently managed government of Pheu Thai has already lost a prime minister, the former businessman Srettha Thavisin, who was released last year by a court decision, brought the Paetongtarn into office.
