Vietnam president quits amid anticorruption drive
Vietnam’s president has resigned after days of rumours he was about to be sacked as part of an anti-corruption drive that has led to several ministers being fired, according to state media reports.
Nguyen Xuan Phuc has “submitted his resignation from his assigned positions, quit his job and retired”, the VNA said.
Phuc’s sudden departure is an unusual move in communist Vietnam, where political changes are normally carefully orchestrated, with an emphasis on cautious stability.
State media said the Communist party had ruled he was responsible for wrongdoing by senior ministers under him during his 2016-21 stint as prime minister, before he became president.
Two deputy prime ministers were sacked this month in an anti-corruption purge that has led to the arrest of dozens of officials, with many of the allegations relating to deals done as part of Vietnam’s Covid response.
Phuc “took political responsibility as leader when several officials, including two deputy prime ministers and three ministers committed violations and shortcomings, causing very serious consequences”, the VNA said, quoting the party central committee’s official statement.
The country’s national assembly removed Pham Binh Minh and Vu Duc Dam from their positions as deputy prime ministers this month.
Minh was a minister of foreign affairs and Dam was in charge of the country’s handling of the pandemic.
At least 100 officials and businesspeople, including Dam’s assistant, have been arrested in connection with a scandal involving the distribution of Covid testing kits.
Thirty-seven people, many of them senior diplomats and police, have also been arrested in an investigation over the repatriation of Vietnamese people during the pandemic.
After closing its borders to slow the spread of the virus, Vietnam organised almost 800 charter flights to bring citizens home from 60 countries and territories.
But travellers faced complicated procedures while paying exorbitant air fares and quarantine fees to get back to Vietnam.
Phuc was elevated to the largely ceremonial role of president in April 2021 after winning plaudits for the country’s broadly successful handling of the Covid crisis.
Authoritarian Vietnam is run by the Communist party and officially led by the party general secretary, president and prime minister, with big decisions made by the the now 16-member politburo.
Le Hong Hiep, a fellow at the ISEASYusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, said Phuc’s resignation may also be linked to political infighting.
“It’s mainly related to corruption investigations but we cannot rule out the possibility that his political rivals also wanted to remove him from his position for political reasons,” he told Agence France-Presse.
The Communist party leader, Nguyen Phu Trong, the architect of what is Vietnam’s largest anti-corruption drive, is due to step down in 2026.
“Some politicians will try to get the (top) prize and because of the competition from their rivals, in this case Mr Phuc is one of them, they may want to remove him to clear the way for the other candidate to get the top job.”