An unsuspected pact at the highest level has unblocked the anomalous Thai political situation, until further notice. After 15 years in exile, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra surrendered yesterday Tuesday at Bangkok's Don Mueang Airport, with his private jet, to be imprisoned. Hours later, Parliament approved the investiture as prime minister of his party's candidate, property developer Srettha Thaivisin.
To place the first civilian in nine years at the head of a Thai government, Pheu Thai, the second most voted force in May's elections, had to join an eleven-party coalition that excludes winners, Avançar, while integrating ultra-monarchist formations full of generals.
Thaksin Shinawatra was received at the airport, coming from Singapore, by his three children, including his daughter Paethongtarn, who will not eventually occupy the leadership of the government, although she leads Pheu Thai. Before being led to prison, Thaksin made a floral offering and prostrated before an image of the current king, Rama X.
The tycoon and fugitive politician was sentenced in rebellion to eight years in prison on corruption charges that supporters see as politically motivated. A possible royal pardon might have persuaded him to return.
Thaksin, extremely popular in the north and northeast of the country, as well as among the working classes in Bangkok, is the only civilian to have completed a term as prime minister, between 2001 and 2005. A year later, after won overwhelmingly for the second time, suffered a coup d'état, and in 2008 chose to leave the country, in a breathless climate between the supporters, the "red shirts", and the "yellow shirts" fueled by the Bangkok elite.
His sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, would win the elections again a few years later, before suffering another coup.
The election of Thaivisin, the son of an official and related to large Sino-Thai families, has shot up the price of his real estate. Pheu Thai is the latest reincarnation of the force inspired by Thaksin in the late nineties.
Some "red shirts" had been waiting since morning for the landing of who was their political idol for redistributive policies. The movement is still licking its wounds after being swept off the streets in 2011.
Until a few months ago, it was unimaginable to the Bangkok establishment that Thaksin's remote-controlled party could be a lesser evil, compared to Avançar, a new political force that postulates the abolition of the crime of lese majeste, for which hundreds of people have been imprisoned.
This and the refusal to agree with parties protected by the army prevented its young leader, Pita Limjaroenrat, from being invested a few weeks ago.
The support of Pheu Thai and others was not enough because among the 750 seats in the bicameral Parliament there are 250 senators hand-picked by the military.
