A star is born
By Hilbert Haar
MP Grisha Heyliger-Marten dealt a quick blow to her political adversaries after she was voted out of her position as chairlady of parliament. She cut all ties with the United People’s party (UP), a political vehicle established by her husband Theo Heyliger and established herself as an independent member of parliament.
Who is the winner and who is the loser in this ugly dogfight? Heyliger-Marten held her head up high and rightly so, considering that the reasons the posse led by MP Rolando Brison came up with for her dismissal are laughable. But hey, that’s politics in St. Maarten for you.
The price Brison and his political allies are going to pay further down the road are going to be sky high. At least that is what I think. Feel free to have a different opinion.
The UP is after Heyliger-Marten’s departure reduced to the size of the Party for Progress with just two seats. For the PFP those two seats are more than respectable, for the UP they seem to mark the end of an era.
Heyliger-Marten’s political future looks bright to me. She has shown what she is made off and, as I have written before, she has stepped out of the shadows of her husband Theo. The question is: what will she do next when it is time for elections again? Joining the National Alliance is out of the question and the United St. Maarten party (USp) seems a doubtful candidate for reeling her in as well.
That leaves three choices: teaming up with Christophe Emmanuel’s NOW party, joining the Party for Progress, joining the soon-to-be-revived DP party or starting a party of her own.
Whatever Heyliger-Marten is gonna do, it is for damn sure that the UP is dead in the water at the next elections and that the political landscape is heading for drastic changes.
With Heyliger-Marten, a new political star is born. I am not saying that I agree with everything she does. I am saying that she has proven to be a political powerhouse capable of blowing a lot of her male adversaries straight out of the water at the ballot box.
And MP Rolando Brison? I think it is fair to say that he will quietly disappear from the political arena during the next elections. The UP is in disarray, according to Grisha Heyliger not only in the political, but also in the financial sense. Brison basically dug his own political grave by picking a fight with the highest vote getter in his party.
What will he do next? Maybe Winair still has a job waiting for him and otherwise he could always knock on the door at NAPA.
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Related articles:
Ousted MP Heyliger-Marten strikes back, leaves the UP and goes Independent
How MP Brison orchestrated his own downfall
Parliamentary Democracy at its finest
Grisha grateful for majority support to remain President of Parliament
Parliament meeting ousting MP Grisha Heyliger-Marten as Chairlady
MP Grisha Heyliger-Marten announcing her resignation from the UP party
