When one family rules, the death of a member isn't just a personal tragedy - it's a matter of state. The Thai princess Bajrakitiyabha, the eldest daughter of King Rama X, has died at 47, after more than three years spent in a coma. With her goes the most likely answer to the question that has long troubled the Thai court - who will be next on the throne.

The princess fell into a coma in December 2022, when she suffered a cardiac collapse while training dogs for a competition. She had been on life support ever since. She died on June 11 at a hospital in Bangkok, of a severe stomach infection followed by cardiac and circulatory complications.

Behind the protocol grief hides a genuine state uncertainty. Bajrakitiyabha was considered the best-prepared heir in the family - a doctor of law from the University of Chicago, a diplomat, ambassador to Austria, active in UN organizations for women's rights. In other words, exactly what a modern monarch would want to show the world.

Now that place is empty. King Rama X has for years not named an official successor, and with his daughter's death the decision rests entirely in his hands. Prince Dipangkorn is mentioned as a possible heir. The question of succession in an absolute monarchy is never just a family matter - where the king rules without elections, every vacancy on the throne is political.

To a reader in the Balkans this may sound distant, but the logic is as old as power itself: when power passes by bloodline rather than by votes, a single death can change the course of an entire state. And then everyone looks to one man to decide - exactly what democracies were supposed to surpass.