Government > Leaders Stats: compare key data on Spain & Thailand

SHARE TWEET EMBED

•  

STAT	Spain	Thailand	HISTORY
Head of state	King Juan Carlos I	King Bhumibol Adulyadej
Head of state > Profile	<p>Spaniards credit King Juan Carlos with steering the country to democracy after the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975 and for saving Spain from a coup attempt in 1981.</p> <p>However, the royal family&#039;s popularity has declined in recent years, amid criticism that it is out of touch with ordinary Spaniards as they struggle with a severe economic crisis. </p> <p>King Juan Carlos&#039;s reputation has been tarnished by an ongoing corruption inquiry implicating his son-in-law, and by a luxury elephant-hunting safari in Botswana in April 2012 at a time of record unemployment in his country.</p> <p>The Spanish chapter of the conservation group WWF removed King Juan Carlos as its honorary president after news of the elephant-hunting trip emerged.</p>	<p>Thailand is a constitutional monarchy. </p> <p>Its king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, assumed the throne in June 1946 and is the world&#039;s longest-reigning monarch. </p> <p>The royal family is revered by many Thais.</p> <p>Thailand has strict lese-majeste laws, and those deemed to have offended the monarchy - which is still a powerful force in the country - are often dealt with severely.</p>
Head of state > Summary	King Juan Carlos I	King Bhumibol and Queen Sirikit
Prime minister	Mariano Rajoy	Yingluck Shinawatra
Prime minister > Profile	<p>Mariano Rajoy became prime minister in December 2011 after his conservative Popular Party won a resounding victory in parliamentary elections.</p><p>The election campaign was dominated by Spain&#039;s deep debt crisis and sky-high unemployment, and the governing Socialists&#039; defeat was widely expected.</p> <p>Mr Rajoy, who has long been known as a cautious public administrator, warned the Spanish people that there is no miracle cure to restore the country to economic health.</p> <p>The son of a lawyer, Mariano Rajoy grew up in a socially conservative Catholic environment, studied law and began his career as a land registrar.</p> <p>He became a regional deputy for the Popular Party at the age of 26 and rose steadily through the party ranks.</p> <p>He held a number of ministerial positions in the governments of Jose Maria Aznar from 1996 to 2004, and was rewarded for his loyalty and discipline when Mr Aznar chose him as his successor as party leader.</p> <p>As leader of the opposition after the 2004 election, Mr Rajoy struggled to rebuild the party&#039;s fortunes.</p> <p>His staying power finally paid dividends when the global economic downturn destroyed public faith in the Socialists&#039; ability to steer the country through a period of deep crisis.</p> <p>In office he has nonetheless struggled to impose financial discipline, and had to turn to the European Union to bail out the banking sector in June 2012.</p> <p>He has pledged to cut government spending by 16.5bn euros (£13.7bn, $21.5bn) and to reduce the public deficit to 6.5% by the end of 2013 - a target that the IMF deems realistic after the failure of an over-ambitious plan to cut it to 4.4% in 2012.</p> <p>In addition, he faces a serious move towards independence by Catalonia, Spain&#039;s wealthiest region, and allegations of links to the case of Luis Barcenas, an ex-treasurer of the Popular Party and suspect in a payments scandal.</p>	<p>Yingluck Shinawatra, the youngest sister of ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, led the opposition Pheu Thai party to a landslide victory in July 2011 and became Thailand&#039;s first woman prime minister.</p><p>In the country&#039;s first general election since 2007, Pheu Thai won 265 seats out of a possible 500 - enough to form a single-party government. </p> <p>However, in what was seen as a shrewd political move, the party announced it would form a coalition with four smaller parties, thus broadening its support in parliament for promised reforms. </p> <p>Ms Yingluck, aged 44 at the time of her election and a successful businesswoman, promised to bring stability and reconciliation to what had for some years been a deeply polarised country. However, critics were quick to point out her inexperience, given that she had never before run for office nor held a government post. </p> <p>The influence of her brother, who was ousted in a 2006 military coup and convicted of graft two years later, loomed large throughout the election and beyond. Despite living in self-imposed exile, Thaksin Shinawatra is still seen by many as pulling the strings of government behind the scenes.</p> <p>The opposition claimed that Ms Yingluck&#039;s primary role was to marshal the Thaksin faithful - the mainly poor rural voters who kept him in power - and serve as his proxy as he governed from abroad. </p> <p>Though Thailand enjoyed relative stability for the first two years of Ms Yingluck&#039;s premiership, an attempt to pass a political amnesty bill in the autumn of 2013 - which would have allowed Mr Thaksin to return from exile without serving his jail term - reignited simmering political tensions.</p> <p>The opposition brought its supporters out onto the streets in their tens of thousands, and mass protests continued for months.</p> <p>In December, Ms Yingluck dissolved the lower house of parliament and called early elections for February 2014 in a bid to defuse the crisis. This does not appear to have satisfied the opposition, which continues to call for her to step down and has announced that it will boycott the elections.</p> <p>Analysts say that despite the protests, Ms Yingluck still enjoys a strong rural support base, which could be enough to return her to power in the next elections.</p> <p>Yingluck Shinawatra has degrees in politics and before running for election she had a corporate career in telecommunications and property. She is married and has one son. </p>
Prime minister > Summary	Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy came to power at a time of economic crisis	Thailand enjoyed a period of relative stability for the first two years of Ms Yingluck&#039;s premiership

15 30 60 All

APA MLA MHRA CSE AMA Chicago Bluebook Bluebook/JOLT Citation