By JINTAMAS SAKSORNCHAI, Associated Press
BANGKOK (AP) — Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the daughter of controversial former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, became Thailand’s prime minister on Sunday after receiving a royal letter of recommendation, two days after she was elected by parliament following a court order ousting her predecessor.
She replaces another politician from the same Pheu Thai party who heads a coalition that includes military parties linked to the coup that overthrew the party’s last government.
Paetongtarn is the third Shinawatra to hold the post, after her billionaire father and aunt Yingluck Shinawatra. Both were removed from office in a coup and forced into exile, although Thaksin returned to Thailand last year when Pheu Thai formed a government.
She received the certificate of appointment at a ceremony at the party’s headquarters in Bangkok attended by senior members of the ruling coalition and her father, who does not hold an official position but is widely considered the de facto chairman of Pheu Thai.
Father and daughter held hands and walked in with beaming smiles. Both wore white official uniforms used in royal and state ceremonies.
Paetongtarn thanked the king, the Thai people and lawmakers and said she would carry out her duties “with an open mind” and “make every square inch of Thailand a space that allows the Thai people to dream, create and determine their own future.”
Paetongtarn was appointed prime minister days after the Constitutional Court ousted Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, who had been in office for less than a year. The court found him guilty of a serious ethical breach for appointing a minister who had been jailed for contempt of court after allegedly attempting to bribe a judge.
Paetongtarn is also Thailand’s second female prime minister after her aunt and, at 37, the country’s youngest head of government.
Speaking to reporters after the ceremony, Paetongtarn said she was committed to pushing forward key policies such as economic stimulus, improving universal healthcare and promoting cultural soft power on the world stage.
She did not initially mention Srettha’s main proposal to distribute 10,000 baht (about $275) digital cash to 50 million citizens to stimulate the economy at local businesses.
The project was criticized as an ineffective contribution to sustainable economic growth and faced several hurdles, including its sources of financing.
When asked by reporters, Paetongtarn said she still intends to push forward a major economic stimulus package for Thailand, but she must “continue to listen to the opinions of others.”
She also said that she would ask her father for advice if she needed it, but stressed that she would make her own decisions. “I am my own person. I have my own things and my own goals that I want to achieve in the future, but of course all of his comments are valuable to me,” she said.
Pheu Thai is the latest in a series of populist parties linked to Thaksin, who was overthrown in a military coup in 2006. That coup sparked nearly two decades of deep political divisions, pitting the largely poor, rural majority in the north who supported Thaksin against the royalists, the military and their supporters in the cities.
Parties linked to Thaksin won the most seats in every national election from 2001 to 2023, when the party lost to the more progressive Move Forward Party.
After Move Forward was blocked by the military-appointed Senate, Pheu Thai managed to form a government. The party joined forces with former rivals, pursuing a kind of political deal with the conservative establishment to prevent Move Forward from forming a government.
Thaksin returned from exile the same day and was briefly imprisoned, beginning an eight-year sentence for corruption and abuse of power. He was almost immediately transferred from prison to hospital for health reasons, and about a week later the king reduced his sentence to one year. He was released on parole in February after spending six months in hospital.
Since his release, Thaksin has become a prominent representative of the country, traveling around the country and making public appearances.
On Saturday, Thaksin’s lawyer Winyat Chatmontree posted on Facebook that Thaksin was among those convicted who were granted a royal amnesty by the king to mark his birthday in late July. The amnesty came into effect on Sunday, meaning Thaksin was released early.
However, the amnesty does not protect Thaksin from an ongoing case for defamation of the monarchy that opened in June after originally being filed in 2016. Some analysts see it as a warning from Thaksin’s enemies that he should scale back his political activities.
