Applauded for his management of the Covid-19 pandemic in Vietnam when he was prime minister from 2016 to 2021, the now ex-president of Vietnam, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, number two in the regime behind the secretary general of the Vietnamese Communist Party (CPV ), was overtaken by “the Viet A bomb” : the Vietnamese press gave this name to the sprawling scandal linked to the first Covid test developed by a Vietnamese company, called Viet A. Overcharged to medical centers with the complicity of bureaucrats in return for bribes, it allowed this company to reap huge profits.
Since the start of the investigation in 2021, the scandal has led to the arrest of around a hundred personalities, including the Minister of Health and a former Minister of Science. At the beginning of January, the Deputy Prime Minister overseeing health affairs was dismissed at the same time as that in charge of foreign affairs, Phạm Binh Minh, splashed by another resounding affair linked to the management of the Covid: bribes extorted to Vietnamese stranded overseas at the start of the pandemic in exchange for priority seats on Foreign Ministry repatriation flights.
The resignation of Nguyen Xuan Phuc, approved on January 18 during an extraordinary session of the National Assembly, reflects “his responsibilities [en tant que premier ministre] at a time when the violations and shortcomings of many executives, including two deputy prime ministers and three ministers, have had consequences of great gravity,” according to an official statement. Nguyen Xuan Phuc is not being prosecuted at this stage, nor are the two former deputy prime ministers, but among the personalities indicted are his niece, as well as a businesswoman close to his wife, both major shareholders. de Viet A. He will be replaced by his vice-president, who will act as interim president until a new president is appointed in May.
The sidelining of President Nguyen and his two former deputy prime ministers, a first at such a level of responsibility in the history of the regime, is intended as a striking demonstration of the PCV’s ability to act with severity in its own ranks, especially after the deprivations endured by the population during the Covid. Nguyen Phu Trọng, the secretary general of the party, – real number one in the country -, in office since 2011, had started in 2016 an anti-corruption campaign targeting officials increasingly high in the party hierarchy. His crusade for “morality” executives is clearly inspired by the convictions of Xi Jinping, the Chinese president: “the root of corruption is individualism, the degradation of political ideology, morality and way of life” he hammered duringan interview recently to official Vietnamese media.
You have 45.68% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.