BANGKOK, June 28 (Reuters) - Thousands of protesters rallied in the Thai capital Bangkok on Saturday to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, piling pressure on a government at risk of collapse over a border dispute with neighbouring Cambodia.
In the largest such rally since the ruling Pheu Thai party came to power in 2023, crowds braved heavy monsoon rain to demonstrate against Paetongtarn, 38, who is also battling to revive a faltering economy and keep a fragile coalition together ahead of a potential no confidence vote next month. "She should step aside because she is the problem," Parnthep Pourpongpan, a protest leader, said.
The latest dispute started with a skirmish between Thailand and Cambodia over a disputed patch of border territory in May. Thai nationalist groups called for Paetongtarn to go after she appeared to criticize a Thai army commander and kowtow to Cambodia's former leader, Hun Sen, in a leaked phone call with him.
Public criticism of the army is a red line in a country where the military has significant clout. Paetongtarn apologised for her comments after the call.
Parnthep, the protest leader, said many Thai people felt the prime minister and her influential father, Thaksin Shinawatra, were being manipulated by Hun Sen, a former ally of the family who has turned against them.
'UNG ING, GET OUT'
Blocking the busy intersection at Victory Monument, a war memorial, crowds including many elderly people waved flags bearing Thailand's national tricolor.
"Ung Ing, get out," the crowd occasionally chanted in unison, calling the premier by a nickname.
Thapanawat Aramroong, 73, said Paetongtarn´s comments about the army commander and seeming eagerness to please Hun Sen were unacceptable.
The demonstration was organised by the United Force of the Land, a coalition of largely nationalist activists who have rallied against other Shinawatra-backed governments over the last two decades.
In a statement read aloud before the crowds, the group said "the executive branch" and parliament were not working "in the interest of democracy and constitutional monarchy".
Remaining coalition partners should quit immediately, they said.
While past protests against the Shinawatras did not directly cause the downfall of those governments, they built up pressure that led to judicial interventions and military coups in 2006 and 2014.
Protester Somkhuan Yimyai, 68, said he did not want the military to end up staging a coup and that previous military takeovers had not "provided solutions for the nation in terms of solving corruption or the government's administration of the country."
The political turmoil in Thailand threatens to further damage the country's struggling economic recovery.
The prime minister now controls a slim majority coalition following the exit of former partner Bhumjaithai Party last week. Protesters on Saturday called for other coalition partners to quit.
Paetongtarn also faces judicial scrutiny after a group of senators petitioned the Constitutional Court and a national anti-graft body with a wide remit to investigate her conduct over the leaked phone call.
Decisions from either bodies could lead to her removal. Hun Sen also launched an unprecedented public attack on Paetongtarn and her family, calling for a change of government, in an hours-long televised speech on Friday, which the Thai foreign ministry described as "extraordinary" while insisting that Thailand prefers to use diplomacy.