Days after the dismissal of former Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, the Thai parliament elected its youngest-ever prime minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra.
Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who took office on 16th August 2024 is the youngest child of billionaire Thaksin, 75, founder of the Pheu Thai party, with which Srettha was also affiliated.
Paetongtarn, 37, was elected easily as her party and its allies hold 314 out of 493 seats in parliament, and she required the vote of at least half of the current legislators to become prime minister.
She studied at the elite conservative institute, Chulalongkorn University, in Bangkok.
Paetongtarn is known by her nickname, Ung-Ing. Before entering politics three years ago, she helped run the hotel arm of her family’s business empire.
Her political career began in 2021, when she became chief of the Pheu Thai party’s Inclusion and Innovation Advisory Committee.
She gave birth to her second child two weeks before the 2023 elections, during which she was a favoured candidate.
Paetongtarn is the third person from her family to take the country’s top job. Her father, Thaksin, became prime minister with the Thai Rak Thai Party in 2001 until he was deposed by a military coup in 2006.
Thaksin’s sister, Yingluck Shinawatra became prime minister in 2011 until she was removed by the Constitutional Court in 2014 after she dismissed Thawil Pliensri from the National Security Council in 2011. That was followed soon after in 2014 by another military coup following months of political turmoil in Thailand.
Both Thaksin and Yingluck left Thailand for self-imposed exile to avoid arrest until Thaksin returned to Thailand in August 2023.
As well as being the youngest person to take the leadership, Paetongtarn is Thailand’s second-ever female prime minister after her aunt.
When she campaigned for election as a prime ministerial candidate last year, Paetongtarn’s promises included lowering Bangkok’s public transportation fares, expanding healthcare coverage and doubling the minimum daily wage.
In Paetongtarn’s first term in office, she will be faced with Thailand’s struggling economy, her party’s dwindling popularity and a possible rise of the opposition, which, since the dissolution of MPF, has regrouped as the Peoples’ Party.
Source: Law and Society Magazine
