So you topple a prime minister’s government, impeach her and fight a legal battle over the rice-pledging scheme, and ban her from politics for years – and then she has the gall to want to speak at the European Parliament?
Understandably the suspicions of the government have been raised over the invitation extended to former PM Yingluck Shinawatra, reported Thai PBS.
Foreign minister Don Pramudwinai, who wasn’t born yesterday, said he would have to check the source and details of the letter, which was revealed yesterday by a Pheu Thai party source.
Euro politicians Elmar Brok and Werner Langen wrote to ask the ex-PM to visit and speak about the political situation in Thailand (or did they?).
“The situation since the military coup is indeed worrisome,” they wrote. “Your country is still without a democratically elected legislature and will probably remain so at least until mid-2017.”
But Yingluck has to get permission from the ruling National Council for Peace and Order to leave the country.
In February it rejected her request to travel abroad, reportedly to meet her elder brother and fellow ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra – so that they could make sure she’d be in the country to face criminal charges over the rice scheme.
A government spokesman said the letter was a private matter, but if Yingluck asked for permission to go abroad they would consider it.
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