Thailand's Pheu Thai and Bhumjaithai parties to form new coalition government

BANGKOK — Thailand’s Bhumjaithai Party will form a coalition government with the third-place Pheu Thai Party following a landslide victory in Sunday’s general election, Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul confirmed Friday.

The Bhumjaithai Party, led by Anutin, secured a surprise 193 seats in the 500-member House of Representatives, according to Reuters calculations. The reformist People’s Party followed with 118 seats, while the populist Pheu Thai Party took 74.

Support from Pheu Thai, which is backed by jailed billionaire and former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, provides Anutin with a clear parliamentary majority and paves the way for a stable administration.

“We will work together as a government and manage the country,” Anutin told reporters after meeting with Pheu Thai leadership. Pheu Thai previously served in a Bhumjaithai-led coalition following the 2023 elections but withdrew from the alliance last June.

Prasert Chanruangthong, the secretary-general of Pheu Thai, said the party’s priority is “to move the country forward for the greatest benefit of the people.”

The alliance between Bhumjaithai and Pheu Thai represents a shift toward cold political pragmatism, signaling that the pursuit of power has definitively eclipsed ideological consistency in Bangkok. For Pheu Thai, reeling from its worst electoral performance on record, joining this coalition is a calculated survival play to avoid total marginalization. However, this marriage of convenience underscores a new reality: the Shinawatra-backed political machine, once an unstoppable force in Thai politics, is no longer the undisputed hegemon.

The primary casualty of this realignment is the reformist People’s Party. Despite securing a second-place finish, its progressive agenda has been effectively cordoned off by an establishment that views its platform as an existential threat. This isolation highlights a broader trend in Thailand: legacy parties are increasingly willing to bury deep-seated animosities to form a "united front" against emerging movements they deem too radical for the status quo.

While Bhumjaithai leader Anutin Charnvirakul has called for “clearing past misunderstandings,” the alliance rests on a tenuous foundation. The government’s durability will hinge on a delicate balancing act of patronage and power-sharing between two parties that were, until recently, bitter rivals. For the region, while a stable administration in Bangkok offers a veneer of predictability, a government built on the deliberate exclusion of a major reformist mandate risks stalling the structural economic and social transitions necessary for Thailand’s long-term competitiveness.

Political stability in Thailand has no direct impact on the business or immigration interests of the Vietnamese-American community. Shifting dynamics in Bangkok do not affect the operations of nail salons or phở restaurants in Little Saigon, nor do they influence the status of visa categories like F2B, EB-5, or H-1B. However, a stable government is crucial for maintaining Thailand's status as a top-tier travel destination for the diaspora. For many Vietnamese-Americans, Thailand remains a preferred choice for vacationing or as a convenient stopover while traveling to Vietnam to visit relatives or handle remittances.