The election of Paetongtarn Shinawatra as Thailand’s prime minister represents a remarkable back-to-the-future moment. She is renewing the political dynasty founded by her billionaire father, Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by a military coup in 2006.
Thailand parliament elected this youngest-ever Prime Minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, just days after the dismissal of former Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin.
Why former PM Srettha Thavisin removed?
This year, the justices of the Constitutional Court voted 6-3 to accept a petition filed by forty senators seeking the removal of Srettha Thavisin, the Pheu Thai Party (PTP) leader. The Constitutional Court has removed four Thai prime ministers in the last sixteen years, including him.
Back ground of new PM
Paetongtarn, aged 37, is the youngest offspring of billionaire Thaksin, aged 75, who established the Pheu Thai party (PTP), to which out-going Prime Minister Srettha was also connected. Her party and its allies easily secured her election with 314 out of 493 parliamentary seats, needing at least half of the current legislators' votes to become prime minister.
Paetongtarn attended Chulalongkorn University, an esteemed conservative institution, in Bangkok. Her nickname is Ung-Ing. Three years ago, she assisted in managing her family's business empire's hotel division before getting involved in politics. She started her political journey in 2021 by assuming the role of head of the Inclusion and Innovation Advisory Committee for the Pheu Thai party.
Legacy of Thaksin Shinawatra
Paetongtarn, a former business executive, becomes the third close member of the Shinawatra clan to take the prime minister’s job. Thaksin's sister Yingluck Shinawatra was Thailand’s first female prime minister from 2011 to 2014. An in-law also served briefly in 2008.
Although Thaksin was a vastly popular politician who handily won three elections, Thailand's royalist establishment was disturbed that his populist policies threatened the monarchy at the heart of Thai identity. Their hostility helped drive both him and Yingluck out of office and into exile.
Then last year, Thaksin alienated many of his old supporters with what looked like a self-serving deal with his former conservative foes. It allowed his return from exile and his party to form the new government, but side-lined the progressive Move Forward Party, which finished first in the election but was seen by the establishment as a greater threat.
Paetongtarn is not a proxy of her father
When Paetongtarn was on the campaign trail for the Thaksin-backed Pheu Thai party, she acknowledged her family ties but insisted she was not her father’s proxy. “It’s not the shadow of my dad. I am my dad’s daughter, always and forever, but I have my own decisions,” she told a reporter.
As she comes to power, however, there are no signs she has carved her own niche with ideas that would distinguish her policies from those endorsed by her party or her father, a smorgasbord of economic measures including cash hand-outs and loosened tourist entry rules.
And not everything has been squared away with her family's enemies. Yingluck remains in exile, and legal problems — arguably politically inspired — could see her jailed if she returns to Thailand.
However, Paetongtarn exuded confidence and empathy as she campaigned last year, traveling extensively and addressing rallies around the country while pregnant with her second child. Her son, Prutthasin, was born less than two weeks before the election.
