Thai PM cancels meeting with Vatican ambassador amid protests in Bangkok

Aug. 23 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayuth Chan Ocha has canceled a meeting with the Vatican’s ambassador to the country, Archbishop Paul Tschang In-Nam, due to demonstrations taking place on Tuesday near Government House in Bangkok. to demand his resignation.

Police have warned protesters that security officers will use rubber bullets and water cannons to control the protests if necessary, while saying they will arrest those who incite violence, according to the newspaper ‘The Nation’.

The Labor Network for People’s Rights has called for protests in front of the historic Chamai Maruchet bridge in Bangkok to demand the Prime Minister’s decision because this week the eight-year term limit defined in the Constitution is fulfilled.

The Pheu Thai party and five other opposition deputies delivered last week to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chuan Leekpai, a letter in which they argue that Prayuth’s term ends this Wednesday, when those eight years are up, and not in 2024 as claimed by the Thai Government.

According to Phheu Thai leader Cholnan Srikaew, the prime minister was officially appointed on August 24, 2014, three months after the military coup he led against the Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisan government.

If the Constitutional Court rules that Prayuth cannot continue in office, since he has completed his eight-year term, he could remain on an interim basis if Parliament does not agree on a substitute until new elections are called, with no date yet, although it is expected that be announced in March 2023.