Paetongtarn Shinawatra becomes Thailand’s youngest prime minister

Paetongtarn was approved as the new head of government in a parliamentary vote that came after 24 hours of frantic negotiations triggered by a court judgment ordering Srettha Thavisin to step down as prime minister.

Srettha was ousted for breaching ethical rules after he appointed a minister who had served time in prison – a verdict widely seen as political.

Paetongtarn, 37, is Thailand’s youngest prime minister and the second woman to lead the country, after her aunt Yingluck Shinawatra. Speaking after the vote in parliament, she said she was confused and saddened by the court decision to oust Srettha, adding: “I hope that I can do my best to make the country go forward.”

Paetongtarn, who has never served in government, is the youngest of three children born to Thaksin and is the fourth member of the Shinawatra family to become prime minister. Thaksin’s brother-in-law, Somchai Wongsawat, was prime minister briefly during 2008, while Yingluck was in post from 2011 until 2014. Thaksin, Yingluck and Somchai were each ousted either by military coups or court rulings – part of a longrunning power struggle between the family and the military royalist establishment.

Paetongtarn will need to manage threats from her family’s old enemies, as well as revive the country’s sluggish economy and her party’s popularity. In office, she will be leading an unlikely coalition that includes some of her party’s old opponents. The controversial arrangement came about after last year’s election, when the former enemies found they were united by a common threat: a popular youthful party, Move Forward, which captured the most votes after promising reforms to make Thailand more democratic and break up big monopolies.

Pheu Thai struck a deal to form a coalition with military-linked parties, pushing Move Forward into opposition and allowing Thaksin to return to Thailand last year, ending 15 years in exile. However, the court ruling ousting Srettha from office has underlined the fragile nature of this arrangement.

Srettha, a real-estate tycoon, led the country for less than a year and is the fourth Thai prime minister in 16 years to be removed by constitutional court judgments. A week earlier, the court disbanded the Move Forward party over its promise to reform the country’s strict lese-majesty law.

“In the span of one week, the court has disfranchised more than 14 million voters by dissolving their party of choice, and unseated a democratically elected prime minister,” said Napon Jatusripitak, a visiting fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, adding that the verdict amounted to a judicial coup.

Paetongtarn played a prominent role in Pheu Thai’s election campaign as the party sought to capitalise on the popularity of her family name among older rural voters in the north and north-east. She campaigned while pregnant, video-calling into rallies when she was no longer able to travel. But the party came second in the election and she did not ultimately run to be prime minister last year.

During her speech on Friday she told media she was honoured to lead Thailand, saying that “I get on stage very often, and I don’t get excited at all, but today my hands are shaking”. She said she had talked with her father over Facetime. “He said to do my best and teased me that he’s happy to see that his daughter has the position [of prime minister] before he has Alzheimer’s. My mom also told me to take care of myself,” she said.

Some have criticised her for referencing her father immediately after assuming power, saying it emphasises that she is in office because of her family name. Thaksin is widely seen as the patriarch and decision-maker behind Pheu Thai, and critics accused Srettha, and now Paetongtarn, of being puppets.

Ken Lohatepanont, a researcher focused on Thai politics, said the coalition formed by Pheu Thai and its old enemies would probably still hold, given both sides wanted to keep Move Forward’s successor party, known as the People’s party, out of power.

“But Thaksin’s freedom of navigation is being increasingly limited,” he added, saying it had put Thaksin in the uncomfortable position of selecting his daughter to run as prime minister – a prospect the family reportedly finds uncomfortable, given the frequency with which high stakes legal cases are launched against politicians.