Thailand in transition: Why the middle class is shifting power from the old order

BANGKOK – Early in 2022, I asked a politician from Thailand’s Pheu Thai Party which rival he felt was its biggest threat. He did not talk about the parties backed by military generals who had repeatedly ousted Pheu Thai and its predecessors from power. Instead, he named the Move Forward Party (MFP).

His instincts about the progressive young party proved right on May 14 when MFP snatched a surprise election victory from Pheu Thai, a behemoth linked to exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra which has won every single poll over the past two decades.