WILLEMSTAD--Curaçao’s PS/PAIS/PNP/Sulvaran coalition is trying to establish a new majority in Parliament after Partido pa Adelanto i Inovasion Sosial (PAIS) fraction member Marilyn Moses pulled her support from the current government on Friday.
She kept her seat to continue as an independent parliamentarian. The PAIS board said during a press conference that they would take 48 hours to try to restore majority backing in the 21-seat legislature.
Opposition party PAR appears to be the only viable candidate. Political leader Zita Jesus-Leito is yet to announce a position, although fraction member Armin Konket has already stated he will not support this government.
Parliament Chairman Mike Franco (PAIS) said during his party’s press conference that if efforts to broaden the basis of the coalition did not give the desired result by today, Monday, the Council of Ministers would pass a national decree asking Governor Lucille George-Wout to dissolve the legislature and call early elections.
The other opposition parties MFK and MAN have no interest and prefer going back to the polls. The same goes for independent (former PAR) parliamentarian Omayra Leeflang, who recently established her new party “Un Korsou Hustu.”
Moses delivered her letter to Franco and the governor just around 10:00am Friday, informing them that she no longer supported the government. She said she could not continue supporting a government that did not listen to its people.
According to her, when she joined the coalition their objective was to impose some measures while ensuring that there was growth in the economy. So far the economy has not grown and the people of Curaçao are basically screaming out for help. “Some of them do not even have food to put on their table,” she added.
In her view the Government of Curaçao is occupied with its plan to increase from NAf. 1.7 to NAf. 2.4 billion, but cannot say where they would get the funds to balance the budget. “Certainly the money has to come from the people while the economy is stuck and they also want to implement more measures.”
Moses said the government she had been supporting wanted to implement more measures that would not benefit the people of Curaçao, such as freezing the periodic wage increases in the public sector, which, in her view, was going to strangle the people of Curaçao.
The now independent parliamentarian added that she believed government needed to pump more money into the economy and to attract foreign investment to boost the economy, rather than stifling the people who already are suffering.
She called on the people to have patience and not be fearful. Instead they need to stand firm, because changes must come that will benefit them.
Effort to avoid a cabinet crisis
