หนังสือพิมพ์ Times ของอังกฤษลงข่าววชิราลงกรณ์หนีโรคระบาดโควิด-19 ไปอยู่ในฮาเร็มที่บาวาเรียกับนางบำเรอ 20 คน...
The world's newspapers are full of stories about how Vajiralongkorn is shacked up at a luxury hotel in Bavaria with a harem of about 20 concubines he calls "the SAS". They all have military ranks too and share the British SAS motto "who dares wins".
Every day, more newspapers around the world report his exploits. Today, British paper The Times has a well-written piece with some input from me.
Full text is here. Note that the print and online versions are slightly different.
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Royal privilege: Thai king Maha Vajiralongkorn ‘flouting coronavirus lockdown’
Critics have claimed that normal pandemic rules don’t seem to apply in Germany if you’re a VIP billionaire, writes David Crossland
As former subjects of Mad King Ludwig, Bavarians are accustomed to eccentric monarchs and have responded for years with benign bemusement to the antics of the Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn who, along with an army of courtiers, has been a semi-permanent resident of the Alpine region for more than a decade.
But the king, who enjoys god-like status in Thailand, is starting to rile some of his hosts as he jets in and out of Europe on apparent pleasure trips despite lockdowns and quarantine rules imposed on the general public in the coronavirus pandemic.
He is reported to have spent recent weeks in a hotel that is closed to ordinary travellers in the picturesque Bavarian town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and from there to have made trips in his personal Boeing 737 to Dresden, Leipzig and Hanover. He made a fleeting trip from Zurich to Bangkok to mark a public holiday, Chakri Memorial Day, on April 6, in commemoration of the establishment of the royal dynasty he now heads.
He is said to have used a Thai Airways jet reserved exclusively for him. The airline has stopped its scheduled services to Europe. Bangkok airport was closed for days before his arrival, officially because 100 Thai tourists refused to enter a government quarantine facility, but there is speculation that it allowed the facility to be disinfected to minimise the risk of contagion for the arriving king.
After the briefest of stays King Vajiralongkorn, 67, who is rumoured to have once made his poodle, Fufu, an air chief marshal in the royal Thai air force and is reported to keep a harem of 20 concubines, headed back to the Grand Hotel Sonnenbichl in Bavaria, triggering accusations that he is flouting the rules during the health crisis, and that the authorities are turning a blind eye to it because of his wealth and VIP status.
Bild, Germany’s bestselling paper, wrote: “It is doubtful whether his excursion and return to Garmisch is in line with the quarantine rules.” One of the paper’s reporters was arrested by Swiss police for trying to photograph the king’s arrival at Zurich airport.
“We are once again getting the impression that the Swiss authorities are putting the interests of important guests of state ahead of the public interest in free reporting and freedom of opinion,” an Amnesty spokesman said.
The Swiss tabloid newspaper Blick commented: “The king is his own court jester.”
German pandemic regulations state that non-EU citizens who have no long-term right of residence are not allowed to enter unless they have an urgent reason to do so, and that entry for purposes of tourism is no longer allowed. While King Vajiralongkorn, as a head of state, is likely to hold diplomatic status, it is unclear whether his trips to and around Germany can be classified as official.
The Bavarian police and the state health ministry have said they have no indications that his entourage is breaching lockdown rules, despite reports that members of his staff have been spotted cycling in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The local district authority said last month it had given the Sonnenbichl hotel special permission to host the king and his entourage as they constituted a “homogenous group”.
Speaking to The Times this week, a spokesman for the authority explained that the king was subject to different rules. “We as a little district authority are right at the bottom of the chain,” he said. “We don’t get any information on whether and with how many officials the king is present here. In the end it’s the foreign ministry that’s responsible for heads of state. Other rules will apply for him than for an average person. In our opinion his stay was permissible because it could be assumed that he is also carrying out official business from there.”
The German foreign ministry referred a question about whether he enjoys an exemption from corona restrictions to the interior ministry, which did not respond to an emailed request for information.
Media estimates which put the king’s assets at $30 billion significantly understate his true wealth, said the British journalist and author Andrew MacGregor Marshall, a prominent critic of the Thai monarchy. “The behaviour of the German and Swiss authorities is puzzling,” he added. “But I guess when you are a multibillionaire royal you get special treatment.”
Mr Marshall, who wrote a book that has been banned by the Thai government, said the king has spent significant amounts of time in Germany since 2007 for medical treatment and because he wanted to spend more time with his mistress Suthida, a Thai Airways flight attendant who is now his fourth wife.
He said the hotel had become the monarch’s “main pleasure palace” where he lived with a large entourage of staff and a “harem” of about 20 women, most recruited from military units. “Vajiralongkorn has a fetish for military ranks and clothing, and he has organised the women in his harem as a military regiment, which he calls the SAS, or Special Air Service, like the British special forces corps,” said Mr Marshall.
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