Thailand’s cannabis crusader Anutin clinches premiership after political storm

From legalising marijuana to navigating palace politics, Anutin Charnvirakul’s journey from health minister to prime minister reflects Thailand’s volatile mix of pragmatism, patronage, and power struggles.

Bangok: Anutin Charnvirakul waited just hours after the leak in June of a phone call that would bring down Thailand's prime minister to kick his manoeuvring to take power into a higher gear.

The veteran politician swiftly walked out of the ruling coalition led by Pheu Thai's Paetongtarn Shinawatra, made an initial outreach to the main opposition, and stood back to bide his time.

On Friday, a week after a court decision dismissed Paetongtarn as premier and triggered a political maelstrom, parliament overwhelmingly voted to elect Anutin as Thailand's next prime minister.

The 58-year-old's rise has been decades in the making, starting with his entry into politics with the Thai Rak Thai party founded by Paetongtarn's billionaire father, Thaksin Shinawatra.

In recent years, Anutin's growing influence in Southeast Asia's second largest economy has been mainly wielded through the Bhumjaithai party, a relative newcomer in Thai politics with roots in the farming communities of the lower northeast region.

For two election cycles, in 2019 and 2023, pundits floated Anutin's name among those tipped to take on the premiership, most likely seen leading a coalition government given his traction across party lines.

That didn't happen and instead, Anutin rose to prominence as health minister for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, and championing Thailand's legalisation of cannabis in 2022.

"I am younger, more fresh and I understand politics in a democratic system," he told Reuters in 2023, making no bones about his ambition for the top job and expectations for a big win.

Bhumjaithai managed to secure only 70 of the 500 seats on offer but, after helping stall the election-winning Move Forward from taking power, the party teamed up as Pheu Thai's junior partner to form a government that held power for two years.

Anutin and his party are a rare bridge spanning powerful family clans that dominate provincial politics and sections of the influential royalist-conservative establishment, said Napon Jatusripitak, a visiting fellow at Singapore's ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

"He is very much a pragmatic politician, cut from the same cloth as Thaksin Shinawatra," Napon said of Anutin, an avowed royalist committed to preserving the revered position of Thailand's monarchy.

"Now, he has positioned his own party in a way that places it as the most credible guardian of conservative interest in Thailand."

A ceaseless contest between the conservative establishment and populist parties backed by Thaksin have defined Thailand's politics, triggering military coups and court verdicts that have unseated six elected prime ministers in the last quarter century.

High Flier

Born to an influential politician-businessman, Anutin studied at an all-boys private school in Bangkok before heading to university in the United States for an engineering degree.

In 1990, he joined his father's construction firm, Sino-Thai, and served as its president before stepping away from the private sector to enter government as deputy minister of public health under Thaksin in 2004.

Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai party went on to be dissolved in 2007 by a court order, which also handed a five-year ban to Anutin, who returned to politics as leader of Bhumjaithai in 2012.

In the decade since, Anutin has leveraged not only the connections of Bhumjaithai founder Newin Chidchob to shore up provincial support, but also his own influence with the conservative elite to ensure his party's presence in successive governments.

Since 2023, he served as interior minister in two administrations led by Pheu Thai prime ministers.

"Bhumjaithai has been part of the government for many, many years, almost in every single cabinet, and usually controls lucrative ministries from which it was able to derive significant patronage that it uses to mobilise supporters on the ground," said Napon.

Anutin's path to power, however, has required the support of the People's Party, the successor of the progressive Move Forward that he blocked from forming the government in 2023 but that will now provide Bhumjaithai's coalition outside support.

"We know that the People's Party has cooperated and made sacrifices in finding a solution for Thailand during a period of crises," Anutin told reporters on Wednesday, after securing the endorsement.

Outside of business and politics, Anutin's other interest include collecting Buddhist amulets and recreational flying, which he sometimes utilises for emergency organ donations.

With Thailand's stuttering economy facing serious headwinds, tensions with neighbouring Cambodia on the knife-edge after a deadly border war and the spectre of further political turmoil, an ability to handle turbulence may prove useful in his new job.