Thailand’s political landscape has once again been rocked by a dramatic turn of events, as the country’s Constitutional Court voted on August 29, 2025, to dismiss Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra from office. The decision, made by a 6-3 majority, stemmed from a controversial phone call between Paetongtarn and Cambodia’s former leader Hun Sen, a conversation that has ignited fierce debate and plunged the nation into yet another period of uncertainty.
The ruling marks the end of the brief tenure of Thailand’s youngest prime minister and delivers a significant blow to the Shinawatra political dynasty, which has been a dominant force in Thai politics for more than two decades. According to AP, the court found that Paetongtarn’s conduct in the June 15, 2025, call with Hun Sen violated ethics rules and compromised Thailand’s national interests. The judges pointed specifically to her familiar tone—addressing Hun Sen as “uncle”—and her criticism of a Thai army general as an “opponent” during a tense period of border disputes.
The leaked audio, released by Hun Sen himself, came just weeks before a deadly five-day border conflict erupted between Thailand and Cambodia in late June. The fighting resulted in dozens of deaths and displaced more than 260,000 people, according to BBC. The timing and content of the call sparked outrage across Thailand, with many accusing Paetongtarn of undermining the military and putting personal relationships above national interests.
In its statement, the court declared, “Due to a personal relationship that appeared aligned with Cambodia, the respondent was consistently willing to comply with or act in accordance with the wishes of the Cambodian side.” The court further stated that her reference to the Thai general “lacked demonstrable honesty and integrity, and seriously violated or failed to comply with ethical standards.”
Paetongtarn, 39, defended her actions by insisting that her familiar tone was a negotiating tactic designed to deescalate tensions. After the court’s decision, she publicly accepted the ruling, but maintained her innocence, stating she had acted solely to save lives. “I was trying to save lives,” she insisted, standing by her intent even as she stepped down from the country’s highest office.
The fallout from the court’s decision has been swift and severe. The ruling coalition, led by Paetongtarn’s Pheu Thai party, is now on shaky ground. The Bhumjaithai Party, previously the largest partner in the coalition, withdrew its support amid the controversy, leaving Pheu Thai with a slim majority in the House of Representatives. As reported by AP, Paetongtarn was already suspended from her duties on July 1, 2025, when the court agreed to hear the case. Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai has been serving as acting leader since then, and the caretaker cabinet will remain in place until Parliament approves a new prime minister.
The Shinawatra family’s political saga is nothing short of extraordinary. Paetongtarn is the third member of the family to serve as Thailand’s prime minister, following her father, Thaksin Shinawatra, and her aunt, Yingluck Shinawatra. Both were forced from office before completing their terms—Thaksin by a military coup in 2006 and Yingluck by court order in 2014. The family’s political machine has experienced repeated victories at the ballot box, only to see them undone by coups or judicial intervention, fueling a cycle of polarization and instability that has defined Thai politics for years.
Thaksin Shinawatra, a former telecommunications tycoon, continues to cast a long shadow over Thai politics. After years in self-imposed exile, he returned to Thailand in 2023, only to be sent to jail on corruption charges, though his sentence was later reduced and he was released on parole after a short hospital stay. Thaksin’s enduring popularity among rural voters stands in stark contrast to the deep mistrust he faces from the country’s conservative royalist establishment, including the military and the courts.
According to Al Jazeera, the Shinawatra brand itself is now in peril. Napon Jatusripitak, a visiting fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, remarked, “I think that the Shinawatra brand is done for. Pheu Thai depends very much on the Shinawatra legacy. … Even the charismatic leadership that Thaksin is often associated with has been chipped away by Paetongtarn’s naivete that has been put on public spectacle on a global scale.”
Paetongtarn’s government was already under pressure before the phone call scandal, struggling to deliver on key economic promises such as raising the minimum wage, legalizing casinos, and implementing a much-touted cash handout program. Public anger simmered over Pheu Thai’s controversial alliance with military-backed parties in 2023, a move that many saw as a betrayal of the party’s progressive base. The party had come in second to the youth-led Move Forward Party in the 2023 elections, but the latter was prevented from forming a government by the conservative-controlled Senate.
The current constitution, drafted under military supervision, stipulates that only candidates nominated for prime minister before the 2023 elections are eligible to take office. This restriction narrows the field of potential successors. Pheu Thai may nominate Chaikasem Nitisiri, a Thaksin loyalist and former justice minister, while conservative parties are likely to put forward their own candidates, such as Anutin Charnvirakul of Bhumjaithai or even Prayuth Chan-ocha, the former coup leader and prime minister.
If Parliament fails to agree on a new government, a snap election could be called—a prospect that has both political camps on edge. Some analysts, like Napon, believe the royalist-military establishment may be maneuvering to install a new coalition with Pheu Thai as a junior partner under conservative leadership, using Thaksin’s unresolved legal issues as leverage.
For many Thais, particularly the younger generation, the cycle of judicial intervention and political upheaval has become a source of deep frustration. Pannika Wanich, a former Move Forward legislator, described the situation to Al Jazeera as a “real-life Squid Game,” where “prime ministers are eliminated one after another until the game master gets the player they want. The rules are rigged – and the normal principles of democracy don’t apply.”
The events of August 2025 have left Thailand’s political future as uncertain as ever. The Shinawatra family’s once-mighty influence is now in question, and the country faces the prospect of further instability, coalition wrangling, or even another round of elections. As the caretaker government holds the reins, all eyes are on Parliament—and the courts—to see which direction Thailand’s turbulent democracy will take next.
This latest chapter in Thailand’s political saga demonstrates just how fragile democratic norms remain in the kingdom, where power struggles between elected governments and entrenched conservative institutions continue to shape the nation’s destiny.
