parliament

Dec. 12 (UPI) — Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul dissolved parliament on Friday, triggering fresh elections just three months after his minority government replaced a government headed by Paetongtarn Shinawatra.

In King Maha Vajiralongkorn’s decree approving the move, Anutin blamed recent deadly border clashes with Thailand’s northern neighbor Cambodia among other issues his administration has struggled to overcome.

The Thai Pride Party leader was elected by lawmakers in September with the backing of the People’s Party, which lent its support on condition that he dissolve the House of Representatives within four months.

However, facing a no-confidence vote after the People’s Party withdrew its backing amid a dispute over constitutional reform, Anutin brought the date forward.

“The appropriate solution is to dissolve parliament, which is a way to return political power to the people,” he said.

Anutin will stay on as caretaker prime minister, albeit with severely limited powers, until the elections, which by law must be held within 60 days.

His administration has been under fire over cross-border fighting with Cambodian forces that has killed at least 20 people and forced hundreds of thousands to flee and for failures in dealing with severe flooding in the south of the country in November in which more than 170 died.

“The government had executed every means in public administration to quickly resolve the urgent issues overwhelming the country… but running the country requires stability,” Anutin wrote in Friday’s decree.

“As a minority government, together with troubling domestic political circumstances, it has been unable to carry out public administration continuously, effectively and with stability.”

Shinawatra, Anutin’s predecessor, was removed from office in August after Thailand’s Constitutional Court found she had broken ethics rules in a phone call to a former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The fall of the government, the third in two years, threatens to exacerbate a deepening political, security and economic crisis, with the economy slowing sharply in the third quarter, posting annualized GDP growth of just 1.2%.

Anutin insisted the dissolution of parliament would have no impact on the country’s military operations on the border with Cambodia after fighting re-erupted Monday, threatening to unravel an already fragile cease-fire brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump in July.

Trump was scheduled to hold phone calls with Anutin and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet on Friday evening to try to get the truce back on track.

Analysts warned that internal Thai politics could complicate that effort with the increasingly tough position being signaled by Anutin’s party on the territorial dispute.

“We see a risk of the conflict persisting into 2026 if the Thai government [of Anutin] judges that adopting a harder line could bolster its political standing ahead of the likely early-2026 elections,” Oxford Economics leader economist Alexandra Hermann told CNBC.

Sébastien Lecornu faces a vital test to his premiership over the social security budget bill.

France’s National Assembly is set to vote on a major social security budget bill, in a critical test for the embattled Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, who has pledged to deliver the country’s 2026 budget before the end of the year.

Debate on the legislation began on Tuesday afternoon. Lecornu governs without a majority in parliament, and has sought support from the Socialist Party by offering concessions, including suspending President Emmanuel Macron’s controversial pension reform.

If lawmakers reject the plan, France could face another political crisis and a funding gap estimated at 30 billion euros ($35bn) for its healthcare, pension, and welfare systems.

“This social security budget bill is not perfect, but it is the best possible,” Lecornu wrote on X on Saturday, warning that failure to pass it would threaten social services, public finances, and the role of parliament.

Socialist leader Olivier Faure said on Monday that his party could back the bill after the government agreed to suspend Macron’s 2023 pension reform, which raised the retirement age, until after the 2027 presidential election.

But the far-right National Rally and the hard-left France Unbowed have both signalled their opposition, along with more moderate right-wing parties.

Even government allies, including the centrist Horizons party and conservative Republicans, could abstain or vote against the legislation. They argue that freezing the pension reform and raising taxes to win socialist support undermines earlier commitments.

France, the eurozone’s second-largest economy, has been under pressure to reduce its large budget deficit. But political instability has slowed those efforts since Macron’s snap election last year resulted in a hung parliament.

Lecornu, a close Macron ally, said last week that rejection of the bill would nearly double the expected shortfall from 17 billion to 30 billion euros ($20bn-$35bn), threatening the entire 2026 public spending plan.

Without a deal before year-end, the government may be forced to introduce temporary funding measures.

The government aims to bring the deficit below 5 percent of GDP next year, but its narrow political options have led to repeated clashes over public spending.

Budget disputes have already toppled three governments since last year’s election, including that of former Prime Minister Michel Barnier, who lost a no-confidence vote over his own budget bill.