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TUTZING, Germany: Thai activists put up a symbolic plaque declaring that Thailand belongs to the people on Friday (September 25) in front of King Maha Vajiralongkorn’s villa in Germany as protests calling for reforms to his monarchy grow at home.
In the pouring rain, Act4Dem protest organizer Junya Limprasert read a letter to the king calling for more democracy and said that the Thai people did not want a king who would spend most of the year in Germany.
“We want the king to hand over the throne, we want the king to stop harassing the Thai people,” he said outside the village in Tutzing on Lake Starnberg, a popular playground for millionaires an hour’s drive southwest of Munich.
The Thai embassy in Berlin could not be reached for comment. The Royal Palace had no comment and has not commented on the protests in Thailand.
Protesters who challenged Thailand’s palace and the army-dominated establishment broke a long-standing taboo by demanding monarchy reform in August and the call was answered last weekend by tens of thousands of people at a rally in Bangkok.
READ: Protesters gather in Thai parliament as lawmakers debate reform
READ: Thai protesters demand monarchy reforms at biggest rally since 2014
The #RepublicofThailand hashtag was trending in Thailand on Friday after parliament delayed addressing protesters’ demand for constitutional change.
According to the Thai constitution, the monarchy must be kept “in a position of revered worship.”
The symbolic plaque placed in a flowerpot in front of the village of Tutzing resembled the one that protesters cemented near the Grand Palace in Bangkok last weekend and which proclaims that Thailand belongs to the people and not to the monarch. Thai police quickly removed that badge.
Vajiralongkorn, 68, has been the king of Thailand since 2016, but spends much of his time in Bavaria, where his 15-year-old son is in school. The king’s lifestyle has been fed to the German tabloids, which have published photos of him in a crop top when he was crown prince.
Details of the king’s life in Germany are not published in the mainstream media in Thailand, where lese majesty laws establish a jail sentence of up to 15 years for anyone who insults the monarchy.
Thai protesters have complained about the cost of the king’s stay in Europe, as well as his absence from the kingdom.
Protesters in Thailand seek to reduce the king’s powers under the constitution and also take away from him direct control of a royal fortune worth tens of billions of dollars and some army units.
