Analysts say the economy of the divided country will be the most important issue for the new young president.
The Thai king has confirmed Paetongtarn Shinawatra as the country’s new prime minister two days after she was elected by parliament.
Paetongtarn, 37, was sworn in on Sunday, making him Thailand’s youngest prime minister.
She took the post just days after Srettha Thavisin was removed as prime minister by the Constitutional Court, a court that has played a central role in Thailand’s 20-year political crisis.
Her confirmation as the country’s new prime minister by King Maha Vajiralongkorn was a mere formality and was read out by Apat Sukhanand, Secretary of the House of Representatives, at a ceremony in Bangkok.
Paetongtarn won a vote in the House of Representatives on Friday with nearly two-thirds of the vote. She is familiar with the campaign because she comes from a family involved in Thai politics: she is the daughter of controversial former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and the niece of Yingluck Shinawatra, Thailand’s first female prime minister.
Thailand’s second female prime minister and chairwoman of the Pheu Thai Party enjoys strong support from senior party leaders and coalition partners, Al Jazeera’s Tony Cheng said in a report from Bangkok.
“She has not yet chosen her cabinet, but based on the people behind her today, we expect her cabinet to be largely the same as that of her predecessor,” Cheng said, adding that Srettha was present at the ceremony because the party wanted to show some level of continuity by not throwing him to the wolves.
As part of the royal confirmation, Paetongtarn knelt before a portrait of the king and gave a short speech.
“As head of the executive branch, I will fulfill my duty together with the legislators with an open heart,” she said. “I will listen to all opinions so that together we can move the country forward with stability.”
A weakening economy in a divided country
Paetongtarn takes over a country that is struggling with economic problems and in which her party is finding less and less support.
At her first press conference, the newly elected leader said she would continue the policies of her predecessor Srettha, an ally, including “comprehensive” economic stimulus programs and reforms, combating illegal drugs, improving the country’s general health system and promoting gender diversity.
The economic situation is a major concern for Thai voters, with many wondering why their party has failed to implement the digital wallet system despite promising to give about $300 to every voter in Thailand, Cheng said.
According to Pravit Rojanaphruk, a columnist for Bangkok-based news channel Kaisar English, the economy will be Paetongtarn’s most important issue.
“For the past 10 years, nine of them under military and semi-military rule, the Thai economy has not done well,” he told Al Jazeera from Singapore. “The country is falling behind its neighbor and the national debt is high.”
The prime minister also said she had no plans to appoint her father Thaksin to a government position but would seek his advice, which was welcomed by many in the country’s government, the columnist added.
Srettha served less than a year in office, symptomatic of Thailand’s cycle of coup attempts and court rulings that have resulted in the dissolution of political parties and the overthrow of numerous governments and prime ministers.
The billionaire Shinawatra family poses another challenge to Paetongtarn, whose populist party suffered its first electoral defeat in more than two decades last year.
Earlier this month, the court that had dismissed Srettha over a cabinet appointment dissolved the anti-establishment Move Forward party – last year’s election winner – over its campaign to amend a law against insulting the royal family that the court said threatened to undermine the constitutional monarchy.
However, the new prime minister’s government is unlikely to give cause for concern in this regard, Rojanaphruk said.
“Under the new prime minister, (the government) will … do its best to appease the military and the royalists so that they do not touch the law against defamation of the royal family,” he said.
The highly popular opposition, the main challenger to Pheu Thai, has since regrouped into the newly formed People’s Party, leaving the country divided between it and Pheu Thai, Rojanaphruk said.
