“Today is a new day. And I hope it will be a day full of hope and sunshine.” Pita Limjaroenrathparty leader”Move forward“, he” accepts “a speech to reporters his surprise victory in the Thai parliamentary elections held last Sunday. After a decade of political turmoil punctuated by a military coup, intervention to consolidate the monarchy, party bans and massive anti-establishment protests, the progressive Pita is a reckless, educated politician who foresees democratization. Thai- today he faces the biggest challenge of his political life.

Short Time or “Thailand’s Lost Decade”

“Siam”. So the country was called until 1949, when the name Thailand was adopted. “Tai means “free man”“. The concept of freedom has been, rather, one of the biggest political and social stakes in the last decade.lost decadeThailand – as Pita calls it – which begins in 2014. In May of that year, the army—under the leadership of former Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha—takes power in a coup, in the shadow of intense mobilization against the then government, which was linked to ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Shinawatra was an important figure in Thailand’s political life in the early to mid-2000s, who – also in a coup – was ousted as prime minister in 2006. Today, Shinawatra’s youngest daughter and her Pheu Tai party are getting ready to work with Pita. form a government.

In 2016, two years after the coup, Thailand is a country under martial law and at the same time a country bidding farewell to its 70-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The late king’s son, Maha Vajiralongkorn succeeds him on the throne. The appearance of a successor marks at the same time the beginning of one a new chapter of political restructuring in Thailand. A few months after the accession of the new king to the throne, the military government adopts a constitution that paves the way for elections. In March 2019, Prayut Chan-ocha, leader of the 2014 coup, was elected prime minister after a controversial election. The Reuters publication specifically mentioned allegations of fraud and vote buying.

Thailand’s conservative turn towards the political direction of “mutual support” of the military leadership and the institution of the monarchy begins to “give birth” to reactions, resistance and opposite social trends. The strengthening of the country’s monarch during the revision of the constitution in 2016, tougher penalties for insulting the king and the royal family, as well as the judicial disqualification of opposition leader Thanatorn Huangrungruangkit filled the streets of Bangkok in the fall. 2019 with thousands of protesters. In January 2020 campaign “We run against the dictatorshipbecame the most significant anti-government event since the 2014 coup.

Despite the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, 2020 has been a year of major radicalization in Thailand. A society for which the monarch was a traditional affiliation and political regularity found itself right in front of the institution of royal power. Hashtag #Why? goes viral on social media. Mobilizations against the monarchy and against the military leadership are intensifying. Thai society calls for elections. Young citizens of the country no longer touch the “royal” etiquette and criticize the institution, but also the face of the monarch. They even question the wealth of the royal family, according to a New York Times article.

At the same time, while a significant part of Thai society was guided by the demand for the democratization of the political landscape, conservative forces rallied around increasingly extreme positions. The government and military leadership form a suffocating framework for enforcing the law against offending the monarch. Pro-monarchist enclaves demand prosecution and severe punishment. Thailand’s first far-right party founded in 2021. This new political formation projects itself as “response” to the anti-monarchist resistance movement that unfolded in the country in previous months and calls for even harsher punishments for “offenders” to the crown.

That’s how we approached the election last Sunday. An election battle in which two “worlds” that coexisted and coexisted in Thailand were to collide. On the one hand, the government, the army and the monarchy. On the other hand, the democratization and youth forces that emerged from the 2020 mobilizations. And public opinion polls may have given the lead to the opposition groups, but no one could have predicted the election victory of 42-year-old Pita Limjaroenrath.

“The New Face of Thailand”

“I feel like times are changing and this is the perfect time for something like this“, – said the winner of Sunday’s election from the headquarters of the party. But how did 42-year-old Pita Limjaroenrath come to be perceived by some as the “new face of Thailand”? “Forward – movement”, which the authorities should have banned.

The blocking of Future Forward has also sparked protests in 2020. Out of these mobilizations, which then demanded constitutional reforms, new elections and an end to the persecution of dissident activists, a new generation of politicians emerged, including Pita.

The rising star of the domestic political scene, who captivated the crowds with his direct anti-government speeches, came to personify the demand for political change and structural cuts towards the weakening of the military leadership and the monarchy, as well as a fair redistribution of wealth.

The scion of a wealthy family with a political background, educated at Harvard and MIT among others, Pita began his career taking over his father’s business before going on his own. He was married to Thai actress Chutima Tinpanart but the couple divorced in 2019. Today, Pita is a divorced father, and his 7-year-old daughter is one of the most important pillars in his campaign.

A match that turned out to be unexpectedly victorious. Pita’s advance first “cut” the electoral thread and is already at the negotiating table with the also oppositional, but rather more populist, Feu Tai about forming a government. Pita says he is optimistic, but he is mindful of the serious difficulties and political obstacles he may face outgoing governmentwho, during his almost 10-year tenure in power, tried “take drugs» the prospect of a change of government in any case.

Route full of obstacles and mines

What then are the obstacles that the winner of the election must overcome? As reported by The Guardian, an absolute majority in the House of Representatives, the new body of which was formed following the recent elections, as well as the approval of the prime minister by this body, is not enough to take the office of prime minister. Senate. A body appointed by the leadership of the country that carried out the coup in 2014. The members of the Senate who will be asked to confirm Pita belong to Thailand’s conservative elite and are close to the military, which understandably creates uncertainty about the outcome of this process.

At the same time, despite the defeat in the elections of the conservative One Nation of Thailand party and Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, the pro-monarchist forces and the military still maintain strong positions not only in state structures and the Senate, but also in the judicial system. After all, the memories of the ban on the political “ancestor” of the current winners are fresh, as are the accusations against Pete himself of owning undeclared shares in a company operating in the media sector. He denied the accusations.

The next two months will be decisive for the political developments in Thailand. In July, the House of Representatives and the Senate will meet to elect the country’s new prime minister. Pita is optimistic that nothing can stop the implementation of the people’s verdict, despite the real difficulties he must overcome, as well as the possible compromises he may make. But do the elites today have the political legitimacy to get another denial of the demand for a democratization of the political landscape?

Political scientist Titinan Pongsudirak, in a text in the Bangok Post, gives his own answer: “The more the dirty game is played (…), the more likely it is that protests will return to the streets.” As The Guardian notes, the old “methodology” no longer works, and now the defeats of the elites follow one after another. The real problem of the country’s elites is themselves, the same publication concludes. In the meantime, the smiling 42-year-old Pita Limjaroenrath holds the fate of the next day in many ways in his hands.

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