Anutin Charnivirakul was voted in after a special session in Parliament on Friday.

The 58-year-old is heir to Sino-Thai, one of Thailand's largest construction firms. He served as the company's president before entering politics in the 1990s.

He has since served in a variety of high-profile positions, including as deputy prime minister for the past six years, health minister from 2019 to 2023, and then as interior minister until this year.

His time as health minister coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic. It was also in that role that he led the campaign to legalize marijuana in Thailand, which in 2022 became the first country in Asia to fully decriminalize cannabis.

While that policy led him to be dubbed in the media as the "cannabis king," Anutin is not known for his liberal politics, but rather as a staunch royalist and leader of the conservative Bhumjaithai Party.

Anutin elected with opposition's support

Anutin's appointment came after Pheu Thai's Paetongtarn Shinawatra was removed as prime minister after a court ruling last month

Anutin won the vote thanks to support from the opposition People's Party, the successor to the progressive Move Forward, which won the most votes at the last election in 2023 but was then banned by the same court that removed Paetongtarn.

The People's Party had agreed to support Anutin's prime ministerial bid as long as he agreed to dissolve parliament within four months and call new elections.

The party has not joined Anutin's government, which it hopes will be short-term and will lead to constitutional reform. Instead, it is etting on a strong result at the polls whenever elections are called.

While this could ultimately turn out to be a shrewd move, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist and professor at Chulalongkorn University in the Thai capital Bangkok, said it was definitely "unusual."

"We've never had any party with the largest number of MPs voting for a prime minister from another party and yet not joining the government, because government is what you want. You want power. I think that they want to show that they are the party of the future," Thitinan told DW. 

Thailand's most pressing issues

In a statement to the nation after being appointed, Anutin said he would focus on solving Thailand's most urgent issues, including the soaring cost of living, border tensions with Cambodia, and threats such as drug and human trafficking and scammers that "threaten the well-being of the nation."

But given the turmoil and division in the country's political landscape, the new prime minister could struggle to make any legislative headway.

"As a minority government, our work may not proceed as smoothly or as quickly as that of a majority government, particularly in Parliament. Therefore, I appeal to all Members of the House of Representatives to set aside their differences and put the interest of the people first," he said.

Thailand's economy is sluggish, with forecasts of a slowdown with just 1.8% growth in 2025, according to the World Bank.

Meanwhile, the border tensions with Cambodia remain unresolved. Thitinan said Anutin was "between a rock and a hard place."

But though the  Cambodia situation proved to be Paetongtarn Shinawatra's undoing, Anutin's appointment has already helped ease tensions.

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Manet congratulated Anutin on his "resounding victory" and said he looked forward to restoring bilateral ties "to normalcy, rebuild mutual trust, and transform the shared border between our two Kingdoms into one of peace, cooperation, development and shared prosperity."

Is Anutin eying a longer stint in power?

Thitinan explained that Anutin, who is "not a policy man," would likely take an "ad hoc" approach to the border issue and the budget, before preparing for an election, which ideally would be held within four months.

"But if he is tricky, then he'll try to stay longer," he predicted. 

He said that the makeup of the cabinet did not suggest that Anutin wanted those in key posts to be there just for a short time. Those now heading Thailand's finance, energy and foreign ministries include seasoned politicians and corporate executives.

"If you look at how his cabinet is being formed, this is not designed to be a stopgap, ad hoc, short-term cabinet. It's almost like they are taking over after an election. He'll be tempted to prolong the government," he said.

Napon Jatusripitak, a political scientist at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, said that should elections take place, Anutin would aim to position himself as a candidate who is likely to deliver a victory when Thailand heads to the polls.

"If there is a genuine intention to dissolve the House within four months of delivering a policy statement to parliament, the cabinet's priorities will inevitably reflect the logic of preparing for a new election," he told DW.

That would mean rent-seeking and budgetary disbursements aimed at recouping funds to finance the election campaign, transferring bureaucrats and officials to consolidate Bhumjaithai's local vote-canvassing networks, and rolling out quick-win economic policies to guarantee grassroots support, he explained.

"Anutin may also try to position himself as an electable prime ministerial candidate in the next election, particularly among segments of the Thai urban middle class — a constituency that Bhumjaithai has never successfully penetrated," he added.

Edited by: Karl Sexton