Thailand 2019-2021: Military, Monarchy, Protests

2019-2021 was a peculiar triennium for Thailand. In 2019, the military leaders who had seized power five years earlier with a coup d’état formed a civilian government via a carefully managed general election. Concomitantly, King Maha Vajiralongkorn, on the throne since 2016, underwent his coronation. While the rituals celebrated the formal beginning of his reign, the King exercised his influence over politics in ways deemed unusual for a country that calls itself a constitutional monarchy. In 2020, as COVID-19 spread worldwide, Thailand experienced more an economic than a health crisis. The number of infections remained remarkably low, but the economy recorded its worst performance since the financial crash of 1997. Only in 2021 did the pandemic become more important, the Government responding with Chinese-developed vaccines that many in Thailand deemed little efficacious. Enraged by political instability, economic stagnation, public health emergencies, and deepening relations with China, throughout 2020-2021, young people protested nationwide. Their mobilization marked the biggest instance of generational resistance since the student protests of the 1970s.