The police used water cannons and tear gas in Bangkok on Tuesday November 17 against demonstrators gathered near Parliament, where deputies and senators are debating a possible reform of the Constitution demanded by the pro-democracy movement.
Read also: Thailand: thousands of demonstrators urge the king to start a dialogue
In an attempt to put pressure on parliamentarians, several hundred protesters gathered around the building, protected by concrete blocks, barbed wire and hundreds of police.
Some activists tried to make their way through and the riot police then used cannons mixing water and chemicals and, for the first time since the start of the protest, tear gas, journalists from the AFP.
Protesters demand the impeachment of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-O-Cha in power since the 2014 coup, reforms to limit the powers of the powerful and extremely wealthy monarchy and a revision of the Constitution, adopted in 2017 and deemed too favorable to the army.
Parliament meets to decide which draft constitutional amendments it agrees to consider.
He is due to vote on this point on Wednesday.
"
His vote is a compromise solution, just as Thailand is a land of compromise,
" tweeted Ford Tattep, one of the leaders of the pro-democracy movement, an allusion to one of King Maha Vajiralongkorn's rare reactions to the protest. who has shaken his country since the summer.
Read also: Thailand: the prime minister does not resign, new demonstration
Several proposed amendments were presented to Parliament by part of the opposition and an NGO: they aim in particular to reform the Senate, the Electoral Commission and the Constitutional Court, considered too close to the army.
One of them also provides that the Prime Minister must be from the ranks of Parliament.
The 250 senators, appointed by the junta, should not easily agree to cut back on their prerogatives and a possible constitutional change will take a long time anyway, according to observers.
Supporters of royalty also gathered near Parliament in the morning to oppose any reform.
"
The modification of the Constitution will lead to the abolition of the monarchy
", worried Warong Dechgitvigrom, founder of the group of defense of the royalty, Thai Pakdee ("
Loyal Thais
").
The pro-democracy movement ensures that it wants to modernize the monarchy, but in no way wants to abolish it.
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