THE HAGUE--The Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament approved on Tuesday a proposal of Ronald van Raak of the Socialist Party (SP) to seek immediate clarity on the constitutional crisis in St. Maarten.
Very concerned about the situation in St. Maarten where the formation of a new coalition has started while the current Council of Ministers wants to dissolve the Parliament, Van Raak requested support for a letter from Dutch Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk.
The Second Chamber agreed with Van Raak that the letter would have to be received on Wednesday, well before the start of the handling of the draft 2016 budget of Kingdom Relations in the afternoon hours.
Van Raak clarified his request during a plenary session attended by almost the entire Second Chamber. “St. Maarten is the smallest country in the Kingdom. Members of Parliament there receive the highest salary and appear to be the most sensitive for bribery. They regularly switch sides,” he said, referring to the various Members of the St. Maarten Parliament who have “jumped ship.”
“That is one of the reasons why we now have not one but two governments. I want a letter from the Minister on what he thinks of the constitutional crisis that has developed, how it is possible that the St. Maarten Constitution is of such bad content that this situation is possible, how it is that the St. Maarten Governor doesn’t seem willing to support a request for new elections and whether pressure was applied by the Netherlands,” Van Raak said.
Several Members of the Second Chamber came forward to express their support for Van Raak’s request: Roelof Bisschop of the SGP party, Sietse Fritsma of the PVV party, Madeleine van Toorenburg of the CDA party, Gert Jan Segers of the ChristianUnion, Wassila Hachchi of D66 and André Bosman of the VVD party.
The latter two MPs added a comment. “I just wanted to make clear that we are not in the St. Maarten Parliament,” said Hachchi. “Sometimes it feels as if we are,” responded Bosman, which made President of the Second Chamber Anouchka van Miltenburg add: “But we are here with many more.”
