- Constitutional Court dismissed Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra for an ethics violation tied to a leaked phone call.
- The ruling ends her year-long premiership and dissolves the entire cabinet as of July 1, 2025.
- Decision deepens Thailand’s political turmoil and marks the sixth Shinawatra-aligned premier removed in two decades.
The Big Picture
Thailand’s Constitutional Court on Friday dismissed Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, ruling she had committed a serious ethics violation in a leaked June 2025 phone call with Cambodian Senate President Hun Sen. The court ordered her removal effective July 1, the date she was previously suspended, and dissolved the entire cabinet, but will continue to serve in a caretaker capacity, according to Thai News Agency .
What’s New
Paetongtarn,39, at the time, was Thailand’s youngest prime minister and had been in power for just over a year. Thirty-six senators filed the petition that resulted to her removal. They said that the leaked recording indicated she violated Thailand’s sovereignty by being nice to Cambodia during a tense border issue. The ruling said that what she did showed partisanship, hurt military unity, and broke the constitutional principles of honesty.
What They’re Saying
Context
The phone call that is the subject of the case took place on June 15, 2025, the same day that Cambodia filed a complaint with the International Court of Justice over a border issue. In the leaked conversation, Paetongtarn appeared deferential to Hun Sen and suggested flexibility on Cambodia’s demand to ease border restrictions. Critics claimed this weakened Thailand’s negotiating position. Paetongtarn later defended her approach as a strategy to avert war. Despite her explanation, the Constitutional Court determined her words constituted a breach of ministerial ethics under Section 170 of the Thai Constitution.
What’s Next
The parliament now has to pick a new prime minister. This will probably be hard because the coalition that Paetongtarn’s Pheu Thai Party is in is weak. The opposition party, the People’s Party, has already said it won’t join the new government. It has agreed to help set up a new government, but only if the new leader fires parliament within four months to make room for new elections.
The Bottom Line
The verdict is another blow to the Shinawatra family in politics and adds to the cycle of the military and the courts getting involved in Thai politics. The country is once again in a condition of uncertainty now that Paetongtarn is gone. This brings up questions about how long the alliance will last, the relationship with Cambodia along the border, and the bigger battle between populist movements and long-standing conservative elites.
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