The announcement that Prime Minister Leona Romeo-Marlin will temporarily take over from Minister of Public Health, Social Development and Labour VSA Emil Lee has at least provided some clarity on the latter’s immediate future following the no-confidence motion against him recently passed by Parliament. After correctly submitting his resignation on July 11 he will no longer function as such.
Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure VROMI Miklos Giterson also made his position available to the governor, but did so based on a request from the United Democrats/St. Maarten Christian Party coalition, rather than a vote of disapproval in the legislature. Perhaps partly for that reason he is staying on in caretaker capacity until “the prospective candidate” has been appointed.
The latter would seem to indicate Giterson’s successor has already been chosen and will undergo the usual screening process. That does not appear to be the case in Lee’s case, however, so the prime minister may have to “hold the VSA-fort” for quite a while.
The release did not mention anything about Justice Minister Cornelius de Weever, who was reportedly also asked to step down. This suggests the coalition leaders are not insisting on his departure or in any case don’t consider it a priority.
As stated before, ensuring the country’s continued recovery from its worst natural disaster to date with good use of funding made available by the Netherlands is what matters most and not so much who sits in what chair.
