Thailand’s Paetongtarn Shinawatra sworn in as PM after royal sign-off

The economy in the divided country will be the new young leader’s ‘bread and butter’ issue, analysts say.

Thailand’s king has endorsed Paetongtarn Shinawatra as the country’s new prime minister two days after parliament elected her.

Paetongtarn, 37, was sworn in on Sunday, becoming the youngest prime minister of Thailand.

She nabbed the spot just days after Srettha Thavisin was dismissed as premier by the Constitutional Court, a judiciary central to Thailand’s two decades of political turmoil.

Her approval as the country’s new premier by King Maha Vajiralongkorn, a formality, was read out by House of Representatives Secretary Apat Sukhanand at a ceremony in Bangkok.

Paetongtarn won by nearly two-thirds in a House of Representatives vote on Friday, no stranger to the process coming from a family in Thai politics as the daughter of divisive former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and niece of Yingluck Shinawatra, Thailand’s first female prime minister.

The second female prime minister of Thailand and leader of the Pheu Thai Party has the strong support of senior party leaders and coalition partners, said Al Jazeera’s Tony Cheng, reporting from Bangkok.

“She hasn’t chosen the cabinet yet, but we presume from the people who are with her today that her cabinet will be much the same as it was under her predecessor,” said Cheng, adding that Srettha was at the ceremony, the party wanting to show a level of continuity by not throwing him under the bus.

As part of the royal endorsement, Paetongtarn knelt in front of a portrait of the king and delivered a short speech.

“As head of the executive branch, I will do my duty together with the legislators with an open heart,” she said. “I will listen to all opinions so together we can take the country forward with stability.”

A floundering economy in a divided country

Paetongtarn inherits a country struggling economically and which has waning support for her party.

At her first news conference, the newly elected leader said she would continue the policies of her predecessor Srettha, an ally, including “major” economic stimulus and reform, tackling illegal drugs, improving the country’s universal healthcare system and promoting gender diversity.

The economy is a real concern for Thai voters, with many questioning why her party has failed to roll out the digital wallet scheme, a promise made to give about $300 to every voter in Thailand, said Cheng.

According to Pravit Rojanaphruk, a columnist with Kaisar English, a Bangkok-based news outlet, the economy will be Paetongtarn’s “bread and butter” issue.

“Over the past 10 years, nine out of that 10 years under military and semi-military rule, the Thai economy has not been doing well,” he told Al Jazeera from Singapore. “It’s falling behind its neighbour and the public debt is high.”

The prime minister also said she has no plans to appoint her father Thaksin to any government position but will seek his advice, which is welcomed by many in the country’s government, the columnist added.

Srettha was in office for less than a year, symptomatic of Thailand’s cycle of coups and court rulings that have disbanded political parties and toppled multiple governments and prime ministers.

The billionaire Shinawatra family is another challenge for Paetongtarn, whose populist party suffered its first election defeat in more than two decades last year.

Earlier this month, the court that dismissed Srettha over a cabinet appointment dissolved the anti-establishment Move Forward Party – last year’s election winner – because of its campaign to amend a royal insult law that the court said risked undermining the constitutional monarchy.

But the new prime minister’s government will likely not be a worry on that front, said Rojanaphruk.

“Under the new prime minister, [the government] … will try to do its best to appease the military and the royalists, so they won’t touch the royal defamation law,” he said.

The hugely popular opposition, Pheu Thai’s biggest challenger, has since regrouped under the newly created People’s Party. The country, therefore, remains divided between them and the Pheu Thai Party, said Rojanaphruk.