Star Metro - Thai PM clings on as crisis threatens to topple government

Her main coalition partner quit and she faced calls to resign or hold an election, throwing the kingdom into a fresh round of political instability as it seeks to boost its spluttering economy and avoid US President Donald Trump's swingeing trade tariffs.

The conservative Bhumjaithai party pulled out on Wednesday, saying Paetongtarn's conduct in the leaked call had wounded the country and the army's dignity.

As pressure grew on Thursday, Paetongtarn apologised at a news conference alongside military chiefs and senior figures from her Pheu Thai party.

"I would like to apologise for the leaked audio of my conversation with a Cambodian leader which has caused public resentment," Paetongtarn told reporters.

The Thai stock market fell 2.4 percent on Thursday as the crisis raged, but by the evening Paetongtarn, daughter of billionaire ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra, appeared to have won a reprieve as another coalition party said it would not withdraw -- for now at least.

Leaders of the Chartthaipattana, United Thai Nation and Democrat parties held urgent talks on the crisis on Thursday afternoon.

Afterwards Chartthaipattana leader Varawut Silpa-archa told reporters his party would remain in government and meet Paetongtarn to decide what to do.

Losing another coalition partner would likely mean the end of her government and either an election or a bid by other parties to stitch together a new coalition.

In the leaked call, Paetongtarn is heard discussing an ongoing border dispute with Hun Sen, who still holds significant power in Cambodia despite leaving office in 2023.

She addresses the veteran leader as "uncle" and refers to the Thai army commander in the country's northeast as her opponent, a remark that sparked fierce criticism on social media.

The Thai foreign ministry summoned the Cambodian ambassador on Thursday to deliver a letter complaining about the leaking of the call.

The loss of Bhumjaithai's 69 MPs left Paetongtarn with barely enough votes to scrape a majority in parliament and a snap election could be on the cards -- barely two years after the last one in May 2023.

- Resignation calls -

Thailand's military said in a statement that army chief General Pana Claewplodtook "affirms commitment to democratic principles and national sovereignty protection".

"The Chief of Army emphasised that the paramount imperative is for 'Thai people to stand united' in collectively defending national sovereignty," it said.

Thailand's armed forces have long played a powerful role in the kingdom's politics and politicians are usually careful not to antagonise them.

Thailand has suffered a dozen coups since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932, and the current crisis has inevitably triggered rumours that another may be in the offing.

Such an outcome would make Paetongtarn the third member of her family, after her aunt Yingluck and father Thaksin, to be kicked out of office by the military.

The main opposition People's Party, which won the most seats in 2023 but was blocked by conservative senators from forming a government, urged Paetongtarn to call an election.

The Palang Pracharath party, which led the government up to 2023, said the leaked recording showed Paetongtarn was weak and inexperienced, incapable of managing the country's security.

Hundreds of anti-government protesters, some of them veterans of the royalist, anti-Thaksin "Yellow Shirt" movement of the late 2000s, demonstrated outside Government House on Thursday demanding that Paetongtarn quit.

- Awkward coalition -

Paetongtarn, 38, came to power in August 2024 at the head of an uneasy coalition between Pheu Thai and a group of conservative, pro-military parties whose members have spent much of the past 20 years battling against her father.

The battle between the conservative pro-royal establishment and Thaksin's political movement has dominated recent Thai politics.

Former Manchester City owner Thaksin, 75, still enjoys huge support from the rural base whose lives he transformed with populist policies in the early 2000s.

But he is despised by Thailand's powerful elites, who saw his rule as corrupt, authoritarian and socially destabilising.

P.Beaulieu--SMC