PM Marlin now faces motion of disapproval

“Urgent meeting” with Governor stalls central committee meeting

PHILIPSBURG – Shortly after DP-MP Perry Geerlings had presented his motion of disapproval against Prime Minister Marlin, the latter said that he had received a call from Governor drs Eugène Holiday and that he had to leave to attend an “urgent meeting.”

Initially the central committee meeting was adjourned for half an hour, but once more than an hour had gone by, the Parliament’s president MP Sarah Wescot-Williams announced that the prime minister would be unable to come back until the evening. She therefore decided to adjourn the meeting until Friday morning at 10 a.m.

The meeting of the central committee had just one agenda point: the national decree to dissolve the Parliament and to call elections.

In his address MP Geerlings noted that no ship jumping had taken place, because USp-MP Chanel Brownbill has not declared himself independent. “He has aligned himself with the new majority,” Geerlings sad.

Geerlings criticized the government’s use of article 59 from the Constitution; this article allows the government to dissolve Parliament and to call elections. “Article 59 is a weapon against rogue Parliaments,” Geerlings said. “But it is the Parliament that keeps the checks and balances in place.”

By using article 59, the prime minister has put the governor in “an impossible position,” Geerlings said. “On social media there are now attacks on the governor. “Elections are uncalled for. We don’t need them.”

The motion of no confidence has not been booked in at the Parliament yet; this will take place during the continuation of the meeting on Friday morning. The motion speaks of gross negligence by the prime minister before, during and after Hurricane Irma and of Marlin’s “confrontational attitude.”

“The motion of no confidence against the government is properly motivated,” Geerlings said. “But the motion to dissolve the Parliament is not.”