Thailand’s Royalist Right Turn

Thailand's Prime Minister and Bhumjaithai Party leader Anutin Charnvirakul casts his ballot in Thailand's general election at a polling station in Buriram province on February 8, 2026 | Photo by Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images

In an article for Project Syndicate, Thitinan Pongsudhirak asserts that although the royalist-conservative Bhumjaithai Party is poised to spend its full four-year term governing in the service of establishment interests, an anti-establishment backlash is possible.

BANGKOK – Thailand’s old guard is back in power. After 26 years of turmoil – marked by street protests between yellow- and red-clad mobs, two military coups, and multiple judicial interventions – the royalist-conservative Bhumjaithai Party has won a decisive electoral victory over the reformist People’s Party. But unless Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul finds ways to lift Thailand out of the economic doldrums and close deep social rifts, an anti-establishment backlash remains a distinct possibility.