Vietnam President Resigns After Being Blamed by Ruling Party for ‘Violations’

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The president of Vietnam has resigned due to “violations and wrongdoings,” the Communist Party of Vietnam announced on Tuesday.

Nguyen Xuan Phuc, 68, was blamed for violations that were made by officials under his supervision.

Phuc’s resignation is the first time a member of the Communist Party of Vietnam’s top leadership has resigned early. He is the most senior official targeted by the Vietnamese regime’s clampdown campaign.

The position of president is mostly ceremonial in Vietnam, which does not have any paramount ruler. Instead, it has four leading positions, or “pillars”: the Communist Party’s secretary, the president, the prime minister, and the chair of the legislature.

“Fully being aware of his responsibilities before the party and people, he submitted an application to resign from his assigned positions, quit his job and retire,” the Vietnamese regime said in statement about Phuc, per state news agency VNA.

Phuc was prime minister from 2016 to 2021 and it was widely believed that he would succeed the general secretary.

His resignation requires approval from the country’s National Assembly to become effective. A rare extraordinary meeting of the assembly will be held this week.

As prime minister, Phuc oversaw trade deals with the European Union and Pacific powers, including Japan and Australia.

The Communist Party of Vietnam is engaged in the clampdown campaign led by longtime chief Nguyen Phu Trong. The so-called anti-corruption campaign seems to have intensified after a plethora of investigations and dismissals.

In 2022 alone, 539 party members were prosecuted or “disciplined” for corruption and “deliberate wrongdoings,” including ministers, top officials, and diplomats, according to the ruling party, while police investigated 453 corruption cases, up 50 percent from 2021.

Talk about a possible resignation by Phuc was widespread after the dismissal of two deputy prime ministers who had served under him.

Carl Thayer, an expert in Vietnam’s diplomacy at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra, said the dismissals may be tied to two scandals that disrupted the handling of the pandemic, notably a bribery scandal linked to flying home Vietnamese citizens who were stranded abroad, and the purchase of COVID-19 test kits.

The party last month disciplined Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son over the involvement of several ministry officials and diplomats in a scandal over repatriation flights.

In a separate move, police in Vietnam on Jan. 5 arrested a former Vietnamese ambassador to Malaysia, Tran Viet Thai, as it widened its investigation into the scandal.

Reuters contributed to this report.