ORANJESTAD – Curaçao and Sint Maarten reject the new demands that the Netherlands has attached to the third tranche of the emergency line of credit. Next Friday a decision will be taken during the Kingdom Council of Ministers.
Both countries mostly have an issue with the new organization that the Netherlands wants to impose upon them, which should ensure that the islands implement the demanded reforms.
“Undemocratic”, is the opinion of the cabinet of Sint Maarten, “because our Parliament would be circumvented and the government bound.” “We will not hand in our autonomy for a bag of cash”, so said the prime minister of Curaçao, Eugene Rhuggenaath, today during an emergency press conference.
‘Mark, we can’t breathe like this’
Aruba sent a complaint by letter to the Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte. “It’s almost as if Aruba has become the country-version of the American George Floyd and our own Mitch Henriquez. Mark, we can’t breathe like this”, said Aruban prime minister Evelyn Wever-Croes.
Aruba has not yet made a decision about the new demands. The island wants to put out feelers to Parliament for example, due to the major consequences for the island. But according to the prime minister, they’re not allowed to share the new documentation about this, which they received yesterday, with others.