The 63-year-old crown prince, Vajiralongkorn, is spoilt and demanding, and—to put it mildly—widely loathed. Three times divorced, he spends a lot of time abroad, often in Germany. Foo Foo, his poodle, which before dying in 2015 enjoyed the rank of air chief marshal.
For years it was rumoured that palace insiders might interfere with the succession in order to elevate Vajiralongkorn’s more admired sister, Princess Sirindhorn, to the throne. But Thailand has never had a reigning queen. But this gossip has recently died down.
Analysts say the question of succession is important because the late king had been a unifying figure who held Thailand’s often fractious politics together and diffused tensions during crises when the dominant military was pitted against civil society.
