BANGKOK: Anutin Charnvirakul, who was confirmed by parliament on Friday as Thailand’s new prime minister, is a cautious and pragmatic politician adept at straddling the country’s political divide.
He’s best known for leading a successful campaign to decriminalize cannabis in Thailand. The 58-year-old’s political ambitions have been supported by his family’s wealth and a strong regional power base in Thailand’s northeastern Isan region, where his Bhumjaithai party garners support from the large, rural population.
Anutin’s key skill is his ability to navigate Thailand’s polarized political landscape, which for two decades has been divided between supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and the royalist-military establishment.
Anutin served in Thaksin’s government from 2004 until a 2006 military coup. In 2019, leading his own Bhumjaithai party, he became health minister in the government of Thaksin’s arch enemy, former Army Commander Prayuth Chan-ocha. But in 2023, he took the posts of deputy prime minister and interior minister in a coalition government led by the Thaksin-backed Pheu Thai party.
That latest alliance was shattered in June this year, after then Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Thaksin’s daughter, spoke indiscreetly during a phone call with Cambodian Senate President Hun Sen about rising tension over disputed territory along the Thailand-Cambodia border that resulted in a five-day armed conflict in July.
