Thailand’s new prime minister yesterday named her Cabinet, dumping an influential military-linked party out of government for the first time since 2019.
Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn officially endorsed the new team of ministers nominated by Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra of the Pheu Thai Party. She is expected to present her policy platform to parliament next week.
The 38-year-old Paetongtarn, daughter of former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, last month was chosen as Thailand’s youngest-ever prime minister after a court ruling ousted her predecessor over an ethics case.
Photo: Reuters
Many of her top ministers are unchanged, but dropped from the ruling coalition is the Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP), led by former army chief and coup-maker Prawit Wongsuwan.
The PPRP was set up as a vehicle for junta leaders to keep power in civilian guise at the 2019 election and led the government until last year’s polls, which brought Pheu Thai to power.
Pheu Thai caused surprise — and consternation among some supporters — when it added PPRP to its governing coalition in August last year.
Prawit was one of the architects of the putsch that ousted Pheu Thai’s last prime minister — Paetongtarn’s aunt Yingluck Shinawatra — in 2014, paving the way for five years of direct military rule. The 79-year-old is under investigation after he was filmed slapping a female journalist as she tried to ask him questions.
Embracing PPRP was seen as a gamble by many because of the party’s links to senior military officers whose hostility to Thaksin and his allies has colored Thai politics for more than 20 years.
Last month was also chaotic as the Thai Constitutional Court dissolved the main opposition Move Forward Party and sacked Srettha Thavisin as prime minister in the space of a week.
Srettha’s ouster paved the way for Paetongtarn to take the top job, but she faces a daunting task with the economy still struggling to bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic and seasonal floods threatening many of the kingdom’s provinces.
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