Angela Merkel’s government has warned Thailand the Thai king should stop conducting state business from German soil, in an unusual intervention that comes at a time of nationwide student protests in the kingdom.

It has long been an open secret that King Maha Vajiralongkorn, who was crowned Rama X last year, lives for much of the time in Germany. German media have reported that he stays with his household in a hotel in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in the Bavarian Alps.

Green party politicians in the state of Bavaria, who have questioned the king’s tax status, say they have established that he was living in a villa in Tutzing on Starnberger Lake near Munich at the time of his late father King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s death in 2016.

For such a big change it was a very small announcement. An unscheduled communiqué published on its website on Saturday June 16 2018 revealed that Thailand’s Crown Property Bureau had transferred its entire portfolio — royal assets worth tens of billions of dollars held for more than 80 years on behalf of the monarchy and the nation — into the hands of the new King Maha Vajiralongkorn.

“All Crown Property assets are to be transferred and revert to the ownership of His Majesty so that they may be administered and managed at His Majesty’s discretion,” the CPB said, clarifying the details of a crown property law passed the previous year. It added that the assets would “now be held in the name of His Majesty” and be subject to tax.
It was an extraordinary move. Thailand’s royal wealth portfolio is estimated to be worth more than $40bn

Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, who led Future Forward before the party was dissolved, says royal wealth is 'taxpayers’ money, it has to be transparent.' © Mladen Antonov/AFP via Getty

But two years later, amid a wave of nationwide protests, Thais are breaking their silence over the 68-year-old king’s wealth and the generous public budgets enjoyed by royal institutions. Student protesters are asking why public funds are being handed to a king who spends more time in Germany than he does in Thailand — an issue most Thai media avoid mentioning. A 10-point manifesto demanding reforms to the monarchy calls for a cut in the royal budget “in keeping with the country’s economic situation” — a nod to the coronavirus pandemic — as well as an end to royal charity projects, which receive taxpayer funds, and the separation of the king’s personal wealth from crown assets.

“It’s the biggest issue of all in Thailand,” says Parit “Penguin” Chiwarak, one of the most radical of the student protesters in pressing for royal reforms. “The royal institution can interfere in politics because they have enough money.

“If we don’t say it now, when are we going to say it?”