New Future Party

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Party logo

The New Future party ( Thai พรรค อนาคต ใหม่ , RTGS Phak Anakhot Mai ; English Future Forward Party , FFP for short or FWP) was a political party in Thailand that existed from March 2018 to February 2020. It had a liberal and progressive orientation. Its chairman was auto parts entrepreneur Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit ; General Secretary of the constitutional lawyer Piyabutr Saengkanokkul . On February 21, 2020, the Thai Constitutional Court ordered the dissolution of the party.

founding

Party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit

The party was founded in March 2018 and officially registered in September of the same year, when the military junta, which had ruled since 2014, relaxed the ban on political parties. The most prominent founding member was the multimillionaire Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit (heir and former deputy chairman of the Thai Summit Group). In addition, one of the founding members was Piyabutr Saengkanokkul, a law professor at Thammasat University who advocates reform and liberalization of the Thai constitution and laws in the Nitirat group; as well as student activists, trade unionists, journalists, filmmakers, academics, business people, women's rights, LGBT and environmental activists.

The leaders were - compared to most Thai politicians - quite young: when the party was founded, Chairman Thanathorn was 39, and Secretary General Piyabutr was 37 years old. The party's supporters were also mostly young. She made extensive use of social media on the Internet during the election campaign. International media compared the party leader to French President Emmanuel Macron because of his age and political style .

program

The main goal of the party was an end to military rule in Thailand, a primacy of civil politics over the military in order to prevent future coups, and a general democratization and liberalization of Thai society. In particular, she advocated strengthening women's rights, LGBT rights and environmental protection. Thanathorn placed the party "clearly on the left" of the political spectrum, the General Secretary Piyabutr compared it with European left and protest parties such as Syriza , Podemos , La France insoumise and Movimento 5 Stelle . The Thai political scientist Giles Ji Ungpakorn classified parts of the party program as neoliberal and saw more similarities to the dissolved Thai-Rak-Thai party of the 2001-2006 ruling Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra .

Participation in elections in 2019 and prohibition procedure

For the parliamentary elections in March 2019 , the party ran with Thanathorn as the top candidate. With 17.3% of the vote and 80 of the 500 seats in the House of Representatives, it became the third strongest force behind the military - affiliated Phalang Pracharat party and the Pheu Thai party , which is closely related to Thaksin Shinawatra (de facto successor to Thai Rak Thai). It won only 30 direct mandates (mainly in the capital Bangkok and neighboring provinces as well as in eastern Thailand), but this was offset by 50 seats for the nationwide party list.

After the election, the New Future party agreed a coalition with the Pheu-Thai party and other, smaller parties of the “pro-democratic” camp. One month after the election, however , the electoral commission announced that it would distribute the party list seats according to a different formula than initially assumed. The New Future party received seven fewer seats than expected and the “pro-democratic” coalition lost its majority. As a result, she was in opposition to the “pro-military” coalition of the previous junta leader Prayut Chan-o-cha .

The Thai Constitutional Court suspended party chairman Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit from his seat immediately after the constitution of parliament on charges of violating the electoral law. Thanathorn is said to have owned shares in media companies shortly before the election, which the candidates are not allowed to do. In November 2019, the Constitutional Court finally disqualified Thanathorn. The first ban proceedings before the Constitutional Court on charges that the New Future party wanted to undermine the Thai monarchy ended in January 2020 with an acquittal. The request for a ban was based, among other things, on the party's logo, which according to applicant Nathaporn Toprayoon (a former advisor to the Thai Ombudsman) resembled the symbol of the Illuminati .

A second case against the party - this time because of financial irregularities - ended on February 21, 2020 with its dissolution by the Constitutional Court. Thanathorn had granted the party a loan of 191 million baht (approx. 5.6 million euros) to finance the election campaign. According to the judgment of the Constitutional Court, this was inadmissible. The 16 members of the party executive committee were given a ten-year loss of the right to stand as a candidate and exclusion from political office.

literature

  • Praphakorn Wongratanawin: Whose Future? In: Southeast Asia (online), May 20, 2018.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thailand: Court dissolves rising opposition party "New Future". In: Spiegel Online. February 21, 2020, accessed February 21, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Aukkarapon Niyomyat, Chayut Setboonsarng: Thai auto heir launches new party, promises to heal political rift. Reuters, March 15, 2018.
  3. ↑ a b Saksith Saiyasombut: Thai billionaire forms new political party to woo younger voters. In: Channel News Asia , March 15, 2018.
  4. ^ Hannah Ellis-Petersen: 'I might go to jail tomorrow' - Thai tycoon takes on junta. In: The Guardian , April 1, 2018.
  5. ^ A b Theresa Martus: Thailand's Macron wants to put an end to the military dictatorship. In: Berliner Morgenpost , November 26, 2018.
  6. ↑ Arnaud Dubus: La Thaïlande insoumise est en marche. In: Liberation , April 28, 2018.
  7. ↑ Giles Ji Ungpakorn: Comparing Thai Rak Thai and the Future Forward Party. In: Prachatai English , April 11, 2018.
  8. ^ List-MP calculation method is constitutional, court rules. In: Bangkok Post (online), May 8, 2019.
  9. ↑ Court suspends Thanathorn from MP. In: Bangkok Post , May 23, 2019.
  10. ^ Future Forward party's survival at risk as leader disqualified as MP by Thai court. In: The Straits Times , November 20, 2019.
  11. ^ Future Forward acquitted in 'Illuminati' case. In: Bangkok Post , January 21, 2020.
  12. ^ Future Forward: Thai opposition party cleared over Illuminati claims. BBC News, Jan. 21, 2020.
  13. ^ Till Fähnders: Party ban in Thailand - The unpleasant opponent. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine , February 21, 2020.