Patongtarn Shinawatra becomes Thailand’s prime minister

BANGKOK (AP) – Patongtarn ShinawatraThe daughter of divisive former leader Thaksin Shinawatra became Thailand’s prime minister after receiving a royal letter of endorsement on Sunday, two days after taking office. She was chosen by parliament. Following a court order to remove her predecessor.

She replaces another leader from the same Pheu Thai party, at the head of a coalition that includes Military parties linked to the coup Which overthrew the last party government.

Patongtarn is the third Shinawatra to hold the office, after her billionaire father and aunt Yingluck Shinawatra. Both were removed from office and forced into exile in coups, although Thaksin returned to Thailand last year when Pheu Thai’s party formed a government.

She received the letter of appointment at a ceremony at the party’s headquarters in Bangkok, attended by senior members of the parties in the ruling coalition and her father, who has no official role but is widely seen as the de facto leader of Pheu Thai.

Father and daughter held hands as they entered the hall with beaming smiles. Both were dressed in the white uniforms of government officials, used for royal ceremonies and state celebrations.

Paithongtarn thanked the king, the Thai people and lawmakers, saying she would carry out her duties with an “open mind” and “make every inch of Thailand a space that allows the Thai people to dare to dream, create and define their own future.”

Paithongtarn became prime minister days after the Constitutional Court removed Prime Minister Sritha Thavisin, who had been in office for less than a year, and found him guilty of serious ethical breaches. Appointment of a Minister in the Cabinet Who was jailed for contempt of court after allegedly trying to bribe a judge.

Paithongtarn is also Thailand’s second female prime minister after her aunt, and the country’s youngest leader at 37.

Speaking to reporters after the ceremony, Paithongtarn said she was determined to push key policies such as economic stimulus, improving universal healthcare and enhancing cultural “soft power” on the global stage.

She initially did not mention Sritha’s landmark proposal to distribute 10,000 baht (about $275) in digital cash to 50 million citizens to spend at local businesses to boost the economy.

The project has been widely criticized as an ineffective means of contributing to sustainable economic growth, and has faced numerous obstacles, including its funding sources.

When pressed by reporters, Paithongtarn said she still had intentions to go ahead with a major economic stimulus for Thailand, but would need to “continue to listen to opinions.”

She added that she would ask her father for advice when she needed it, but insisted that she would make her own decisions. “I’m an independent person. I have my own things and my own goals that I have to achieve in the future, but of course all his comments are valuable to me,” she said.

The Pheu Thai Party is the latest in a series of populist parties linked to Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 military coup that sparked nearly two decades of deep political divisions that pitted a largely poor, rural majority in the north who supported Thaksin against the royalists, the military and their urban backers.

Thaksin-linked parties won the most seats in every national election from 2001 until 2023, when they lost to the more progressive Move Forward Party.

Phú Thi’s party was able to form a government after the military-appointed Senate blocked Move Forward, and it partnered with former rivals in what was widely interpreted as a political deal with the conservative establishment to prevent Move Forward from forming a government.

On the same day, Thaksin returned from exile and was briefly imprisoned to serve an eight-year sentence for corruption and abuse of power. He was almost immediately transferred from prison to hospital due to his poor health, and about a week later the king commuted his sentence to one year. He was released on bail. In February after spending six months in the hospital.