11 September 2024

Thailand’s establishment strikes another blow against democracy

On 7 August, the Constitutional Court of Thailand dissolved the Move Forward Party on the basis of its attempts to amend the country’s lese majeste law, banning its executives from politics for a decade. Following the party's dissolution, its members merged into the Thinkakhao Chaovilai Party and retitled it the People's Party. Just a week later, prime minister Srettha Thavisin was dismissed by the same court after an ethics probe that was widely believed to have been politically motivated. The decisions mark the return of autocratic politics, led by the country's royalist-military political establishment, and have extinguished optimism that Thailand...