Thailand’s elevation of its youngest-ever prime minister last week averted an immediate crisis, but the new administration could rekindle old strains between the country’s most influential political family and its powerful royalist-military elite.

Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the 38-year-old scion of Thailand’s Shinawatra clan, was appointed premier last week following the sudden dismissal of her predecessor, Srettha Thavisin, by the constitutional court over an ethics breach.

Her election by parliament has preserved a shaky alliance between the Shinawatras’ Pheu Thai party and its historic rivals aligned with the royalist-military establishment at a crucial time for Thailand, as south-east Asia’s second-largest economy struggles to mount a recovery following the pandemic.