Thailand's Parliament to vote Friday for a new prime minister as top contender gets opposition's nod

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand's main opposition party agreed on Wednesday to support a rival party's leader to be the next prime minister, in what appears to a move towards resolving the country's political crisis. The Southeast Asian country has been under a caretaker government since last week.

The backing, given by the People’s Party to Anutin Charnvirakul, leader of the Bhumjaithai party, seemed likely to secure him the job, as he claimed to have the backing of a majority of lawmakers.

The Parliament's website posted a notice on Wednesday night that the House of Representatives would convene on Friday to vote for a candidate to lead the next government. Five who were nominated during the last general election in 2023 are eligible.

A potential roadblock to the plan appeared to be lifted earlier when the king's Privy Council reportedly rejected a request from the caretaker government, led by the Pheu Thai party, to dissolve Parliament and call new polls, instead of letting the current House of Representatives pick a new prime minister.

Thai media, citing only an unidentified “source,” said the draft royal decree for dissolution submitted by the caretaker government was rejected because it was legally faulty. Parliament would be unlikely to proceed with a vote if it believed King Maha Vajiralongkorn intended to approve dissolution.

The Constitutional Court last week dismissed Pheu Thai's Paetongtarn Shinawatra as prime minister for breaching ethics laws in a phone call with Cambodia’s Senate President Hun Sen about tensions over competing claims along their border, which erupted into a deadly five-day armed conflict in July.

Anutin claims he has secured 146 votes from his own party and its allies, while the 143 People's Party lawmakers will also support him, easily exceeding the 247 majority he needs out of the 492 House members currently serving

The 58-year-old Anutin has served in the Pheu Thai-led coalition government that took power in 2023, and before that in the military-backed but elected government under Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former army commander.

He is best known for successfully lobbying for the decriminalization of cannabis, a policy that is now in the process of being more strictly regulated for medical purposes. He also played a high-profile role as health minister during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he was accused of tardiness in obtaining adequate vaccine supplies to fight the virus.

People's Party leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut said his group could not support Pheu Thai because it had had failed to govern effectively in its two years in power.

However, he explained that its support for Anutin was contingent on conditions specified in an agreement signed by the Bhumjaithai party leader, including that the prospective new government must dissolve the House of Representatives within four months and call a general election.

An Anutin-led government would also have to commit to organizing a referendum on constitutional amendments to allow the drafting of a new constitution by an elected constituent assembly. The People's Party has long sought changes in the constitution — which was imposed during a military government — to make it more democratic.

The People’s Party, then operating under the name the Move Forward party, had won the most seats in the 2023 election, but was kept from taking power when a joint vote of the House and the Senate failed to approve its candidate. Senators, who were appointed by a military government and were strong supporters of Thailand's royalist conservative establishment, voted against the progressive party because they opposed its policy of seeking reforms to the monarchy. The Senate no longer holds the right to take part in the vote for prime ministers.

After Move Forward was blocked from taking power, the Pheu Thai party then had one of its candidates, real estate executive Srettha Thavisin, approved as prime minister to lead a coalition government. But he served just a year before the Constitutional Court dismissed him from office for ethical violations.

Srettha’s replacement Paetongtarn, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's daughter, also lasted just a year in office. But even before she was forced out, her government was greatly weakened when Anutin's Bhumjaithai party abandoned her coalition right after her controversial call in June with Cambodia’s Hun Sen. Its withdrawal left Pheu Thai’s coalition with just a tiny and unstable majority in Parliament.

Leader of Bhumjai Thai Party Anutin Charnvirakul, fourth left in front, shows the signed Memorandum of Understanding between his coalition parties and the People's party at Parliament in Bangkok, Thailand, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Leader of People's Party, Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut shows the signed Memorandum of Understanding between his party and Bhumjai Thai Party at Parliament in Bangkok, Thailand, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Leader of Bhumjai Thai Party Anutin Charnvirakul leaves after a press conference at Parliament in Bangkok, Thailand, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Leader of Bhumjai Thai Party Anutin Charnvirakul shows the signed Memorandum of Understanding between his coalition parties and the People's party at Parliament in Bangkok, Thailand, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Leader of People's Party, Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut, center, talks to reporters during a press conference at Parliament in Bangkok, Thailand, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

U.S., Danish and Greenlandic officials have met face to face to discuss President Donald Trump's ambitions to take control of Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of Denmark. At the same time, Denmark and several European allies are sending troops to Greenland in a pointed signal of intent to boost the vast Arctic island's security.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said after a meeting in Washington on Wednesday with his Greenlandic counterpart, U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio that a “fundamental disagreement” remained. He acknowledged that “we didn't manage to change the American position” but said he hadn't expected to.

However, Wednesday's events did point to ways ahead.

Denmark, Greenland and the U.S. agreed to form a high-level working group “to explore if we can find a common way forward,” Løkke Rasmussen said. He added that he expects the group to hold its first meeting “within a matter of weeks.”

Danish and Greenlandic officials didn't specify who would be part of the group or give other details. Løkke Rasmussen said the group should focus on how to address U.S. security concerns while respecting Denmark's “red lines.” The two countries are NATO allies.

“Whether that is doable, I don't know,” he added, holding out hope that the exercise could “take down the temperature.”

He wouldn't elaborate on what a compromise might look like, and expectations are low. As Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen put it Thursday, having the group is better than having no working group and “it's a step in the right direction.” It will at least allow the two sides to talk with each other rather than about each other.

Trump has argued repeatedly that the U.S. needs control of Greenland for its national security. He has sought to justify his calls for a U.S. takeover by repeatedly claiming that China and Russia have their own designs on Greenland, which holds vast untapped reserves of critical minerals.

Just as the talks were taking place in Washington on Wednesday, the Danish Defense Ministry announced that it was increasing its military presence in Greenland, along with NATO allies. France, Germany, Norway and Sweden announced that they were each sending very small numbers of troops in a symbolic but pointed move signaling solidarity with Copenhagen.

The U.K. said one British officer was part of what it called a reconnaissance group for an Arctic endurance exercise. The German Defense Ministry, which dispatched 13 troops, said the aim is to sound out “possibilities to ensure security with a view to Russian and Chinese threats in the Arctic.” It said it was sending them on a joint flight from Denmark as “a strong signal of our unity.”

Poulsen said that "the Danish Armed Forces, together with a number of Arctic and European allies, will explore in the coming weeks how an increased presence and exercise activity in the Arctic can be implemented in practice,” he said.

On Thursday, he said the intention was “to establish a more permanent military presence with a larger Danish contribution,” and to invite allies to take part in exercises and training on a rotating basis, according to Danish broadcaster DR.

While the European troops are largely symbolic at this point, the timing was no accident.

The deployment “serves both to send a political signal and military signal to America, but also indeed to recognize that Arctic security should be reinforced more," said Maria Martisiute, an analyst at the European Policy Center in Brussels. "And first and foremost, this should be done through allied effort, not by the U.S. coming and wanting to take it over. So it complicates the situation for the U.S.”

The European efforts are Danish-led and not coordinated through NATO, which is dominated by the United States. But the European allies are keen to keep NATO in play, and Germany said that “the aim is to obtain a well-founded picture on the ground for further talks and planning within NATO."

Poulsen has said he and Greenland's foreign minister plan to meet NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Brussels on Monday to discuss security in and around the Arctic. NATO has been studying ways to bolster security in the Arctic region.

“I’m really looking forward for an announcement of some kind of military activity or deployment under NATO’s framework,” Martisiute said. “Otherwise there is indeed a risk that ... NATO is paralyzed and that would not be good.”

Sylvain Plazy in Brussels contributed to this report.

Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Greenland's Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt speak at a news conference at the Embassy of Denmark, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)

An Airbus A400M transport aircraft of the German Air Force taxis over the grounds at Wunstorf Air Base in the Hanover region, Germany, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026 as troops from NATO countries, including France and Germany, are arriving in Greenland to boost security. (Moritz Frankenberg/dpa via AP)

Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Greenland's Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt speak at a news conference at the Embassy of Denmark, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)

A man rides by on a quad bike past a row of Greenlandic national flags in Nuuk, Greenland, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)