The Thai parliament has appointed Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the daughter of billionaire and former head of state Thaksin, as prime minister.
At 37, she will be the country’s youngest prime minister and the second woman to hold the office after her aunt Yingluck.
Their election came just two days after former Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin was sacked by a constitutional court. Both are members of the Pheu Thai party, which finished second in the 2023 election but formed a governing coalition.
Ms Paetongtarn faces the difficult task of reviving Thailand’s stagnating economy and preventing the military coups and judicial interventions that have brought down four of her party’s previous governments.
“I really hope I can give people confidence that we can create opportunities, improve the quality of life and give empowerment to all Thai people,” Ms Paetongtarn told reporters after the vote on Friday.
She was visibly overwhelmed and said her hands were shaking with excitement.
She admitted that she was “neither the best nor the most talented in the room.”
“But I always think that I have a strong will and I have a good team… My team is strong, experienced, determined and we share the same ideas. That is something I value very much,” she said.
Ms Paetongtarn, who received 319 votes in favour and 145 against, is the fourth member of the Shinawatra clan to become prime minister in the past two decades.
The other three, including her father Thaksin and her aunt Yingluck, were deposed by military coups or rulings of the Constitutional Court.
The same court dismissed Mr Thavisin on Wednesday for appointing a former lawyer who was once in prison to his cabinet.
On Friday, Ms Paetongtarn said she was “confused” and “very sad” when she learned of Mr Srettha’s dismissal.
She said she decided it was “time to do something for the party and the country” after speaking to him and her family.
She added that Mr Thaksin had called her to encourage her to “do her best” and said he was glad to see her at work even in his old age.
She attended elite schools in Thailand and a university in the UK and worked for several years for the Shinawatra family’s Rende hotel group, where her husband is deputy chief investment officer.
She joined Pheu Thai in 2021 and was appointed party leader in October 2023.
Ms Paetongtarn’s appointment brings fresh energy to Thailand’s top leadership. Pheu Thai members may also hope that she can help revive the party’s political fortunes.
Thaksin became prime minister for the first time in 2001, but his second term ended abruptly after his government was overthrown in a military coup in 2006. returned to Thailand after 15 years in exile last October, hours before Mr Srettha was elected Prime Minister.
His permission to return was part of a major deal with his old conservative enemies, who now form a coalition with the Pheu Thai party.
In June he was Charged with insulting the monarchyHe is the most prominent figure to be charged in Thailand with lese majeste, a law used against political dissidents.
Wednesday’s decision to sack Mr Srettha is also widely seen as a warning to Mr Thaksin, who still dominates the Pheu Thai party, to curb his ambitions.
Thaksin’s sister, Yingluck, won the 2011 election by a landslide, but was later disqualified by the courts and her government was overthrown in a second coup. She now lives in exile.
Ms Paetongtarn led the Pheu Thai Party’s campaign in last year’s election while in the final stages of her pregnancy, earning her many admirers.
“I think after eight years, people want better policies, better solutions for the country than just coups,” she told the BBC at the time. “They are looking for policies that will improve their lives.”
Election winner Move Forward was blocked from forming a government by the military-appointed Senate – paving the way for a Pheu Thai-led coalition with Mr Srettha as prime minister.
Beginning of the month Constitutional Court dissolved Move Forward and dismissed eleven of his politicians from politics for a decade.
