now next one returned to an
extraordinary day in thailand
protests in bangkok are demanding curbs
to the king's powers
that's remarkable because the thai
constitution says the king
has to be held in a position of revered
worship
and the protests want the resignation of
the prime minister that's remarkable
because he's a former leader of the
military junta
that ruled thailand from 2014 until last
year
but have a look at this here we see the
king and the queen being driven by
motorcade through the protesters
and this was what greeted them
and some of these protesters if you look
closely are using an anti-government
three-finger salute something we think
has come from the film the hunger games
and you can also see the heavy
police presence too i should say there
was a counter protest as well
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the supporters of the monarchy turned
out dressed in the royal yellow color
and this is another video in which we
can see royalists dressed in yellow
clashing with anti-government protesters
and you can see the police getting
involved too and these are the latest
pictures it's early morning in bangkok
and the anti-government rally is still
going on in front of the prime
minister's
headquarters now this day hasn't come
out of the blue it's been coming there's
been an unprecedented series of protests
in recent months
the bbc's jonathan head was at this most
recent one
well this now looks like the end of a
protest which
began with high tension a little
distance from here
in perhaps the most sensitive spot in
bangkok royal avenue
uh an avenue along which the king was
going in a motor gate it's the first
time king raja
longhorn has been in thailand when we've
had one of these big protests
and everyone wondered what would happen
if the king was being
in some way insulted or not respected
there were large numbers
of pro-royal yellow-shirted supporters
out there
but in the end these student-led
protesters decided to avoid
confrontation and they've moved up
here just outside the office of the
prime minister they've been blockaded
the police have put up concrete
barricades razor wire
but they're keeping their spirits up
they certainly believe their
the momentum of their movement movement
which is
pushing for really quite radical demands
is still
strong given what these protesters are
asking for
this is a revolutionary moment for
thailand now
many such confrontations in the past
have ended violently in this country
this one so far everyone is trying to
keep it civilized
it's organized at every point they're
trying to negotiate
their way through but don't be in any
doubt at all
about how profound the division is now
between these
young people who have simply got sick of
the way in which politics has been done
the way in which the military
involves itself in politics and the role
of the monarchy
and a government which literally has its
back to the wall
and the man in the middle of this story
is king mahavajira longhorn he's been
king since 2016.
he's 68 was educated in britain and
australia he's been married four times
has seven children
and spends much of his time in germany
he's also
very rich with an estimated wealth of 30
billion us dollars that makes him the
wealthiest ruler
in the world one upon wanganan is the
editor of bbc thai
they want the prime minister to resign
and as we said this prime minister has
been
ruling the country since 2014 since he
led a coup in 2014 and then the students
also want
um the new constitution they say they
want a constitution that is more
accountable to the people with less
influence
of the military and also the third one
which is very important they want the
reform of the
monarchy which they say they want the
monarchy to be an
institution that is accountable to the
people
and do they have the support of any of
the main political parties
well um most of the parties now have
been
very quite unsupportive of the
of the students and of the youth you've
got the government
parties has been trying to delay all the
demand by the students to
come up with a new constitution but
you've got some opposition parties that
seem to be supporting the students
as well but it because they have the
minorities
votes in parliament so they cannot
really try to push this forward
and i was surprised when i saw these
these protests aren't the protesters
breaking those
strict rules around the monarchy in
thailand yes we know about this les
marches law which is
you know you are not allowed to defame
the king the queen
the apparent or the regent otherwise you
could face a jail term of
maximum of 15 years but it is very
unprecedented that
students and youth they all come up and
drove to protest
to demand for a reform of the monarchy
which has never happened
in my generation but with this younger
generation they've been
very brave on this and still we don't
know what could
happen as yet astronaut handheld was
reporting that
both sides have been restrained in the
movement so far
but we don't know what could happen as
uh the night goes by
it's very early in the morning now and
there's a large crowd in front of
uh government house now but the prime
minister came out today and say that he
wants
the police to take drastic legal action
against these people who has broken law
even though this last marches law has
not been enforced
in several years the but there are other
laws that
the government can still use to go after
the student
leaders and which could be and these
laws are
as harsh as the last matches law itself
you