Thailand: tension over anti-government protests in Bangkok

(ANSA) - BANGKOK, 16 AUG - EMBED START Image {id: "editor_0"} epa08606682 Thai protesters flash the three-finger saluteduring an anti-government protest at the Democracy Monument in Bangkok, Thailand, 16 August 2020. Thousands of anti-governmentprotesters gathered to protest against Thailand's royalist elite and the military-backed government calling for political andmonarchy reforms. EPA / DIEGO AZUBEL EMBED END Image {id: "editor_0"} Thousands of young demonstrators are expected today at an anti-government demonstration in Bangkok, in a context of economic crisis and growing political tensions that led the nascent movement to demand a reform of the monarchical institution: a taboo subject in a country where the strictest majesty law in the world applies.
    The protest, which will be held around the Monument to Democracy in the old part of the capital, comes a few days after the arrest of three of the most influential activists of the movement, and a week after a demonstration at Thammasat University - the scene in 1976 of a massacre of scholars engaged in similar protests - where students listed their demands for reform of the monarchy on the basis of more democratic criteria.
    Students demand the resignation of the government and the dissolution of Parliament, a new Constitution that replaces the one written by the military in 2017 cementing their influence in state affairs and an end to threats against those who criticize the monarchy and the government led by former general Prayuth Chan-ocha. confirmed in power last year after elections marred by large irregularities.
    The monarchy's proposals for reforms are seen as pure blasphemy by a large section of the population in a kingdom where the veneration of the monarch is enshrined in the Constitution, and the pro-monarchists have already organized some demonstrations in support of the monarchy - even today with fewer than a hundred people. -in response to students.
    The current king Rama X spends most of the year in Germany and does not enjoy the same popularity as his father Rama IX, on the throne for seven decades until his death in 2016. (ANSA).