Parliamentary Crisis Continues In Curacao

Details

Published on Saturday, 15 September 2012 12:15

Written by Sourced Information

Hits: 922

(Caribbean News Now): WILLEMSTAD, Curacao -- Curacao now finds itself, for the next several weeks, in a parliamentary crisis after a majority of the Curacao parliament convened on Thursday to remove nine outgoing ministers from office immediately. The governor has been asked to name a person to form an interim government.

Since the fall of the government of Prime Minister Gerrit Schotte, the parliamentary president has prevented the parliament of holding public meetings. He would thus prevent himself and the ministers of the outgoing cabinet from being removed from office.

The opposition, which now has a majority in parliament, in a separate meeting outside the Parliament building, elected a new parliamentary president and a new vice president. On Thursday, the majority of Parliament voted to remove the outgoing government and form an interim government. Whether this legal, is not clear as yet.

At Thursday's sitting, there was a physical confrontation between the opposition and supporters of ruling party, Pueblo Soberano. The supporters attempted to prevent the opposition gaining access to the parliament building. It came to blows, and the newly elected vice president of the parliament received a blow to the head.

Inside, the doors to the meeting hall were blocked. Then the opposition left the parliament building to meet somewhere else in the city.

All eyes are now on the governor, who said in an earlier statement that the parliament should meet again to resolve the impasse. Now that it seems impossible after the latest incident, the governor can decide to inform the Dutch government, which can intervene. Ministers were due to meet in The Hague on Friday.

• < Prev
• Next >