Exiled former Thai leader Thaksin Shinawatra returns home as ally is appointed prime minister

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Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has returned to Thailand, ending a decade and a half of self-imposed exile after he was ousted by a military coup and sentenced to prison on corruption charges.

His return follows months of political turmoil in the kingdom, after an election in May in which pro-democracy parties took more than two-thirds of the vote, only to see the leading candidate blocked by the military-appointed Senate from forming a government.

Arriving at Bangkok airport around 9 a.m. Tuesday, a beaming Mr. Thaksin was greeted by members of his family. He bowed and laid flowers before a portrait of Thailand’s king, before waving to the hundreds of red-shirted supporters of his Pheu Thai party who had gathered outside.

Police promptly arrested the 74-year-old fugitive and escorted him to the Supreme Court and then to prison, where he has begun serving an eight-year sentence he received in absentia. Pardons for those over 70 are common in Thailand, however, and there is widespread speculation that Mr. Thaksin’s highly choreographed return indicated some kind of deal had been cut with the country’s military rulers.

The arrival of Thailand’s most famous politician came as lawmakers voted Tuesday to confirm Srettha Thavisin as Prime Minister, paving the way for the formation of a new government after weeks of uncertainty. The real estate mogul and confidant of Mr. Thaksin’s was put forward by a coalition that includes pro-military parties, after the Senate refused to appoint Pita Limjaroenrat, leader of the reformist Move Forward party, which took the most votes in the May election.

Pheu Thai had initially supported Mr. Pita but broke with his party after it became clear the conservative establishment would not support him as prime minister, owing in part to Move Forward’s proposal to change Thailand’s strict lèse-majesté law, which makes it a crime to insult the king and has been widely used to suppress anti-government speech.

The willingness of Mr. Thaksin’s party to deal with the military has enraged many voters, sparking protests and prompting some shops to refuse to sell a chocolate-mint iced drink favoured by Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Mr. Thaksin’s daughter, who led Pheu Thai’s election campaign. A poll by the National Institute for Development Administration found that about 64 per cent of respondents disagreed with the idea of working with military-backed parties.

On Monday Mr. Srettha, 60, said Pheu Thai had no choice but to partner with some rivals it had earlier vowed not to work with.

“We are not lying to the people, but we have to be realistic,” said Mr. Srettha, who had the support of 317 lawmakers and needed 58 votes from the Senate to secure the requisite backing of half the legislature.

That Tuesday’s vote coincided with Mr. Thaksin’s return will only renew suspicions that Pheu Thai’s priorities are driven by its former leader and could expedite a shift among pro-democracy voters toward Move Forward, which will now sit in parliament as the largest opposition party.

Mr. Thaksin, a former policeman, telecom tycoon and owner of Manchester City football club, won the hearts of millions of working-class Thais with populist giveaways ranging from cash handouts and village loans to farm subsidies and universal health care.

During his five years in power, from 2001 to 2006, he butted up repeatedly against the country’s military and royalist establishment and was eventually deposed in a coup while he was visiting the United States. After briefly returning to Thailand in 2008, he fled the kingdom and spent the next 15 years in exile, avoiding what he called trumped-up charges of corruption.

But he remained a dominant force in Thai politics. His sister Yingluck Shinawatra became prime minister in 2011, only to be ousted three years later by a military junta, which led the country until 2019, when it began a partial return to democracy.

The slow speed of that transition led to protests in 2020 that soon expanded to include demands to reform the monarchy, after the death of popular King Bhumibol Adulyadej in 2016 and his succession by King Vajiralongkorn, a controversial figure who has spent much of his adult life outside the country.

Once the leading reformist party, Pheu Thai failed to capitalize on the protests and lost ground to Move Forward, particularly among young urban people. The latter party won more than 38 per cent of the vote in May’s election, taking 151 seats in parliament, on a platform that included reducing the military’s influence, reforming lèse-majesté laws and introducing progressive policies such as a 40-hour workweek and the legalization of same-sex marriage.

Move Forward has refused to enter any coalition with figures responsible for the 2014 coup. Last week, the party’s secretary-general, Chaithawat Tulathon, said the government proposed by Pheu Thai was “not reflective of the people’s voice” and “distorts the will of the people.”

With reports from Reuters