TThailand’s new prime minister is a scion of the influential Shinawatra clan and the youngest person to take office. She is seeking to bring stability after her predecessor, Srettha Thavisin, was ousted by a court over ethics violations.
Paetongtarn Shinawatra, 37, is the second woman to serve as Thailand’s prime minister, succeeding two former prime ministers from her family. Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, her billionaire father who held the office from 2001 to 2006 before being ousted in a military coup, returned to Thailand last year after 15 years of self-imposed exile and is now expected to play a larger role in Thai politics.
Her key tasks will include allaying voters’ concerns about the high cost of living and foreign investors’ worries about Thailand’s turbulent politics.
Read more: Why Thailand’s political crisis sounds familiar – and what is needed to break the vicious circle
Here’s what you need to know about them.
Who is Paetongtarn?
Known by her nickname Ing, she is the youngest daughter of Thaksin Shinawatra, the patriarch of the political dynasty that has dominated most Thai elections since the turn of the century.
Paetongtarn studied political science at Thailand’s prestigious Chulalongkorn University and later earned a master’s degree in international hotel management from the University of Surrey in the UK. At 17, she made headlines when she worked a part-time job at McDonald’s and her father stopped by.
She is married to commercial pilot Pidok Sooksawas. The couple have two children, including a baby boy whom Paetongtarn gave birth to during her election campaign last year.
Read more: Paetongtarn Shinawatra on Thailand, pregnancy and power
What did she do before her time in politics?
From 2011 until his entry into politics, Paetongtarn gained most of his professional experience in the Shinawatra family’s business empire, which includes a golf course and companies in the real estate, hospitality and telecommunications sectors.
Until earlier this year, she was listed as managing director of hotel company Rende Development Co., which is run by her sister Pintongta Shinawatra Kunakornwong and which describes the luxurious Rosewood Hotel in Bangkok as a major project.
She is currently the largest shareholder in listed property company SC Asset Corp. Pcl, with a 28.5% stake worth about 5.2 billion baht ($152 million), according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Before she can take over as prime minister, Paetongtarn must give up her business functions and comply with share ownership rules under Thai law.
How did she get into politics?
Paetongtarn has seen Thaksin’s career first hand. At eight, she accompanied her father on his first government job as foreign minister. At 20, she barricaded herself in a safe house as tanks patrolled Bangkok’s streets as the army seized power from him. Two years later, she watched her father flee Thailand to avoid conviction for corruption that he said was politically motivated.
Paetongtarn officially began her political career when she joined Pheu Thai in 2021 as director of the party’s innovation and inclusivity committee. Two years later, she led Pheu Thai’s primary campaign and ran as one of its three prime ministerial candidates, pledging to end nearly a decade of rule by military-aligned governments led by Prayuth Chan-ocha.
She had vowed to end the vicious cycle of coup attempts against her family – Thaksin was overthrown in 2006 and her aunt Yingluck’s government in 2014. For more than a decade, the Shinawatras had been seen as a threat by the royalist elites who control some of the country’s most powerful institutions and companies.
Ironically, it now relies on the pro-royalist conservatives with whom Pheu Thai has formed a government. Thaksin struck a deal last year to return to Thailand after living in exile for more than a decade while facing corruption allegations.
What will be the main policy goals of your government?
Since Paetongtarn’s victory helped the Pheu Thai party secure its lead in the new government, it suggests there will be little change in the policies of Srettha’s administration. Her government is likely to focus on boosting growth through looser fiscal policies while tackling the high cost of living and near-record household debt. She has advocated lower interest rates and sharply criticized the central bank, saying its autonomy poses an “obstacle” to solving the country’s economic problems.
But it remains to be seen whether the leadership change will provide her government with a convenient excuse to abandon a $14 billion digital wallet cash program. It was a key campaign promise of the Thaksin-backed Pheu Thai party and the centerpiece of Srettha’s ambition to help the economy grow 5% annually, like many of her Southeast Asian neighbors.
When asked by reporters on the eve of her nomination, Paetongtarn simply said that she would review the program after taking office.
