Braam keeps his seat

WILLEMSTAD – Independent MP and general practitioner Eduard Braam will not surrender his seat to the PAR for the time being, Dick Drayer reports on Caribisch Netwerk. He will assess per topic whether he is going to vote with the coalition or with the opposition. Braam does not exclude cooperation with the MFK and Kòrsou di nos Tur parties, but he says that that is not in the line of expectations or logical.

Photo caption: Eduard Braam. Photo Caribisch Netwerk / Dick Drayer

The controversial politician came under fire when he decided to leave the PAR during the formation of a new cabinet of MAN, PAR, PNP and UKH. Because of that, the coalition fell one seat short of a majority.

During the uproar that followed it became public that Braam was sentenced in 2003 for a sexual crime. Allegedly the doctor got involved with a former patient in the Netherlands. Braam reacted fiercely and threatened the journalist that brought the news – Yves Cooper – with a lawsuit for defamation. He withdrew the threat after the court ruling surfaced.

The PAR has now taken its distance from its former party chairman, indicating that it was not aware of the conviction. “That is incorrect. I told them in 2006 when I became a member of the PAR,” Braam says. “I have been convicted for lechery, but I was not punished. I had not been treating her for more than one and a half year. The PAR did not consider this a problem anymore.”

The Braam controversy did not only cost the PAR a seat, it also cost the party a minister. The MAN, PAR and PNP – with respectively 4, 4 and 2 seats – accepted Pueblo Soberano again to form a minimal majority.

Yesterday the names of the candidate ministers had to be submitted to formateur Kenneth Gijsbertha. MAN will get general affairs, which includes the posts of prime minister, president of parliament and minister plenipotentiary in The Hague. The blue party also gets Finance and Education. PAR keeps Economic Affairs and gets Public Health. PNP keeps Traffic and Urban Planning and gets Justice. Pueblo Soberano has to make do with Governance and Planning and Social Affairs.