‘We love them all the same,’ King Vajiralongkorn tells reporter in surprise interview

During a walk through thousands of prostrating royalists chanting “Long live the king,” King Vajiralongkorn on Sunday night gave his first known face-to-face comments to a reporter since ascending the throne.

The king was outside the Grand Palace when a Channel 4 and CNN news team asked him about the ongoing protests and calls for royal reform. After initially saying “no comment,” the monarch repeated, “We love them all the same” three times. Asked if there was room to compromise with the protesters, the king replied, “Thailand is the land of compromise.”

The brief interview was a tremendous scoop by Jonathan Miller, a U.K. Channel 4 foreign affairs correspondent, who had waited among the crowd for the chance to get the king’s thoughts on protests calling for his power to be brought under the constitution. The king was interviewed standing beside…