Marlin-Romeo 2 cabinet dubbed the weakest cabinet in St. Maarten’s history.
PHILIPSBURG: --- Turmoil among the ruling coalition especially among the former United People’s Party members that are now members of the United Democrats caused an uproar on St. Maarten and even abroad when it was rumored that the UD/ SMCP coalition had fallen on Saturday afternoon.
Last week MP Franklin Meyers met with former Prime Minister and former leader of the National Alliance William Marlin at a well-known restaurant to discuss the possibility of forming a national government.
SMN News understands that Meyers continued to meet with other MP’s from the National Alliance and the United Peoples Party (USP) as he continues to work towards forming a national government.
Sources within the current coalition said that the UD MP’s are having serious issues with the current Prime Minister Leona Romeo Marlin and Minister of VROMI Miklos Giterson. It is understood that the Prime Minister is not cooperating with the coalition partners that appointed her to office while the Minister of VROMI has not made any efforts to solve some of the most pressing issues including that of the landfill.
SMN News further learned the MP’s are also having serious issues with the Minister of Finance Perry Geerlings and Minister of TEATT Stuart Johnson.
It is further stated the majority MP’s are disgusted since they are not able to work with Prime Minister Romeo-Marlin and they feared calling her to order or giving her a motion of no-confidence might trigger the dissolution of parliament and new elections might be called. Having new elections called five months after Parliament was installed will not be in the best interest of the country. The current Parliament was sworn in on April 2nd while the Council of Ministers on June 26th 2018. Should this government fall it will be a government that did not last 6 months and one that is considered the weakest since St. Maarten gained its status on October 10th 2010. Besides that St. Maarten already had 7 new governments and the only thing that may work is having a national or broad based government that would include if not all but least three of the political parties that holds seats in Parliament. Should St. Maarten politicians not find a proper solution with their political instabilty then they will be inviting Higher Supervison just like St. Eustatius.
