She was one of three candidates to succeed Phu Trong as head of the Party, the most important position. She is also forced to resign due to the “burning furnace” anti-corruption campaign, which is interspersed with maneuvers ahead of the Congress scheduled for January 2026. Reduction of the Politburo The Politburo is reduced to 12 members from the previous 18, with the Prime Minister in office, Pham Minh Chinh, and the Minister of Security, To Lam, in the highest positions.
Hanoi (/Agencies) – The “burning furnace” campaign within the Vietnamese Communist Party does not stop, and the week that is coming to an end has seen perhaps the largest number of personalities excluded from the party leadership and from the country.
The reckoning in the political establishment – which had already seen two heads of state and the president of Parliament resign in recent months – also affected Truong Thi Mai, the woman (the first to reach a position at this level) on Tuesday. ) in leading the Central Organizational Commission of the Communist Party of Vietnam and member of the party secretariat. A personality of great experience and following, who entered the party’s Central Committee in 2006 and was elected a member of its Politburo (the political bureau) in 2016, Mai was one of the three favorite candidates left to aspire to the position of general secretary of the party. Communist Party of Vietnam (the most important position in Hanoi) replacing Nguyen Phu Trong, during the 14th congress scheduled for January 2026.
With the mandatory resignations of Pham Binh Minh, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Vo Van Thuong and Vuong Dinh Hue – which have occurred since December 2022 -, the shortlist of candidates (who, according to internal rules, must necessarily have occupied more than two mandates in the Politburo) has thus been reduced to the acting Prime Minister, Pham Minh Chinh, and To Lam, Minister of Public Security since 2016. The latter is responsible for the moralizing campaign that is gaining strength with respect to the party founded in 1930 and who led the fight for independence and subsequently led the country towards significant economic development, while giving little to the dirigisme and authoritarianism that continues to hit any dissidence hard.
Many observers are beginning to wonder when the selection process for the congress will end, with a Politburo now reduced to 12 members, compared to the previous 18, and with three of the personalities closest to the secretary general fallen from grace in the last three months.
Among the prominent “victims” of recent days is Pham Thai Ha, assistant and vice president of the deposed president of the National Assembly and member of the National Defense Commission, Vuong Dinh Hue, who was also expelled from his position and from the party on May 2 for violating its rules. She had been arrested on April 21 for abuse of power and use of her influence for her own benefit, in relation to the involvement of political figures in the interests of a large construction group. The same fate befell Duong Van Thai, a former member of the party’s central committee and an influential leader in the northern province of Bac Giang.
The May 14 Secretariat meeting also expelled three other prominent figures from the party: former vice president of the Vinh Phuc Province People’s Committee Nguyen Van Khuoc; former Luong Tai District Party Committee Secretary Le Tuan Hong; and former chairman of the Vietnamese Fatherland Front Committee in Gia Lai province, Ho Van Diem. Other prominent members of the Central Committee, as well as the heads of the Communist Party Committee in Ho Chi Minh City and that of Vinh Phuc province, ended up being investigated for corruption and malfeasance. Among the personalities whose expulsion has been requested are the current Minister of Labor, Dao Ngoc Dung, and his predecessor.
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