Thousands rally to call for Thai PM Paetongtarn Shinawatra to resign

Thousands of demonstrators gathered in the Thai capital Bangkok, calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra after a telephone call that she had with former Cambodian leader Hun Sen was disclosed.

In the call, which concerned a recent incident on their border, she addressed Hun Sen as “uncle” and said that a Thai military commander managing the dispute “just wanted to look cool and said things that are not useful”.

The call sparked the anger of the public and a key partner of his power coalition left. Paetongtarn apologized, but defended the call as a “negotiation technique”.

Before leaving to visit northern Thailand, Paetongtarn told journalists that it was the “right of protest of the people, as long as it is peaceful”.

The rally on Saturday was the largest of its kind since the Pheu power party Thai came to power in 2023.

Thousands of people have braved the monsoon rain and blocked the roads at the Victory Monument War Memorial in Bangkok, waving the Thai flags and holding sides with slogans such as “PM is enemy of the state”.

The Head of Protest, Santhep, Pourongpan, said that the Prime Minister “should withdraw because it is the problem.”

Seri Sawangmue, 70, traveled overnight by bus from the north of the country to reach the demonstration.

He told the AFP news agency that he was there “to protect the sovereignty of Thailand and to say that the PM is unfit”.

“I have experienced many political crises and I know where it goes,” he added.

Paetongtarn said that she would no longer hold future calls with the former Cambodian chief, but Sunthep told Reuters that many Thai people felt that she and her influential father were manipulated by Hun Sen.

Paetongtarn, 38, is the daughter of Thaksin Shinawatra, the former fallen Prime Minister who returned to Thailand last August after 15 years in exile. It has only been in office for 10 months and is the second Prime Minister of the country, the first being its aunt Yingluck Shinawatra.

The demonstrators call at the end of the leaders of Shinawatra.

The rally was organized by the United Strength of the field, a coalition of largely nationalist activists who protested other governments led by Shinawatra for more than two decades.

In a press release read to the crowds, the group said that the executive power and the parliament did not work “in the interest of democracy and constitutional monarchy”.

In addition to flags and signs, people wore umbrellas to protect themselves from rain. When he stopped, a rainbow formed on the victory monument.

Tuesday, the Constitutional Court will decide to resume the opportunity of a request from the senators requesting the referral of Paetongtarn for an alleged professional on the Hun Sen call.

Hun Sen said that he had shared the audio clip with 80 politicians and that one of them had disclosed him. He then shared the entire 17 -minute recording on his Facebook page.

The call concerned a recent dispute between Cambodia and Thailand, which saw the tensions increase in May after a Cambodian soldier was killed in a border confrontation, plunging links with their lowest for more than a decade.

But the tension between the two nations dates back more than a century, when the borders were drawn after the French occupation of Cambodia.

The two have imposed border restrictions on each other, while Cambodia has prohibited Thai imports from electricity food, as well as Thai television and cinema dramas.

Despite the tensions between their countries, the friendship of the Shinawatras with the Hun family dates back decades, and Hun Sen and Paetongtarn’s father considers himself “Godbrothers”.