The Bangkok Podcast | Expat Life In Thailand Via Expats From Canada & America

In our semi-annual update on Thai politics, Ed does his best to explain the current situation and how Thailand arrived here over the last ten years. He begins with the framework that defined Thai politics for almost 15 years: one party led by the Shinawatra clan that was populist and relied on the support of Thai farmers in the Northeast and the conservative Democratic Party and military establishment that represented the middle class and above relied on support from Bangkok. While the populist party dominated at the ballot box, it led first to a coup in 2006 against the patriarch Thaksin, and then to a coup in 2014 against his sister Yingluck.  The result was a military government for five years until the elections of 2019. Largely due to a very biased Constitution, the military squeaked out a virtual tie with a new version of the populist party, but close behind was a new player on the scene: the truly progressive Future Forward Party, which was primarily supported by younger Bangkokers. However, the conser