Vietnam’s Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong died on Friday (19) after holding the country’s most powerful position for 13 years. He was 80 years old.
Trong died “due to old age and a serious illness,” the Communist Party said in a statement posted on its website, without giving further details about the nature of the illness.
The statement cited information from Trong’s medical team, saying he died “after a period of illness, despite being treated wholeheartedly by the Party, the state, a collective of professors, doctors and leading medical experts.”
The country’s president, To Lam, took over from Trong on Thursday (18), when the party announced that the leader would need to focus on medical treatment.
The party will have to decide whether Lam will remain as acting party general secretary until the current term for the post expires after the next Congress in 2026, or whether it will elect a new candidate before then.
Although Vietnam does not officially have a supreme ruler, Trong was the country’s most powerful figure as general secretary of the party and had held the position since 2011.
He secured a third term in 2021 after a rule limiting incumbents to two terms as party chief was waived, demonstrating his strength and significant political influence in a party that has ruled Vietnam for nearly half a century.
But in recent months, he has appeared frail at public events and has missed several high-level meetings.
Trong was educated in the Soviet Union and was considered a Marxist-Leninist ideologue. In 2017, he unleashed what many saw as a China-style crackdown on corruption, known as the “fiery furnace,” under which hundreds of officials were investigated for corruption and many were forced to resign, including cabinet ministers, a parliament speaker and two presidents.
Lam, a former head of the powerful domestic security agency, has been a key player in that campaign and was elected president in May after his predecessor resigned amid allegations of unspecified wrongdoing.
Source: CNN Brasil
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