The 'Four Pillars' Are Restored
New president, new NA chairman
Good afternoon from Ho Chi Minh City! Welcome to the latest edition of the Vietnam Weekly exclusively for paying subscribers (with a preview for free readers). When I started this newsletter in 2018, I never imagined writing about Vietnamese politics this much.
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On to the news.
Political news has been awfully busy since Thursday when Trương Thị Mai resigned and four new Politburo members were named.
On Saturday, the Central Party Committee put forward Trần Thanh Mẫn to replace the ousted Vương Đình Huệ as Chairman of the National Assembly, and Minister of Public Security Tô Lâm to replace ousted Vo Võ Văn Thưởng as President.
Yesterday, the National Assembly (NA) unanimously voted to elect Mẫn to lead the legislature, while Lâm became president this morning.
This restores the ‘four pillars’ of top leadership and ends (for now, at least) a period of unprecedented leadership turnover for a government that sells itself on stability.
But the next Party Congress is two years away and there is no clear frontrunner to replace Nguyễn Phú Trọng - who reappeared in public last week after a long absence - as General Secretary of the CPV.
So where do these new leadership appointments leave us?