Thanathorn 'confident' FFP will survive loans ruling
published : 20 Feb 2020 at 08:11
newspaper section: News
writer: Post Reporters
Future Forward Party (FFP) leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit on Wednesday expressed confidence his party will emerge unscathed from Friday's ruling by the Constitutional Court on its loan controversy.
He insisted the 191 million baht loan he extended to the party was intended to cement the FFP's independence and free it from the influence of financiers.
"That explains why the party opted not to finance itself by raising funds," Mr Thanathorn, also heir to an auto-parts business, told the media.
"But because the party needed money to ensure liquidity, it had to borrow," said Mr Thanathorn, whose net worth is estimated at 5.6 billion baht.
He said he was confident the FFP would not be disbanded in the loan case because he has evidence to prove transparency in the loan contract between himself and the party.
Even if the party did end up being dissolved, he said, no Future Forward MP would ever defect to the coalition government. "The reason is that FFP's MPs are well connected with a shared political ideology," he said.
After any dissolution, the party's MPs would move instead to one party, though he could not reveal more about that matter, he said.
The Constitutional Court is set to rule tomorrow on whether to disband the party over the loan.
