Louisa-Godett
to Parliament
WILLEMSTAD--FOL-leader Anthony Godett’s sister and former Prime Minister Mirna Louisa-Godett will replace him in the Antillean Parliament when he becomes Commissioner in Curaçao’s outgoing Executive Council after the holidays, at the expense of Elfried Capella.
Godett confirmed that he has been invited for talks by PAR-negotiator Pedro Atacho and received a list of questions. He denied that any decision has been taken, because that’s up to the party council and so far only the board has met.
He also said he received a proposal from Pueblo Soberano (PS) leader Hermin Wiels to form an alliance, “but I don’t understand it because he keeps attacking us.”
Wiels hopes for an anti-Final Statement coalition with MAN (5 seats), FOL (2), NPA (2) PS (1) and Forsa Korsou (1), for a minimal majority of 11 in the 21-seat Island Council. Since having these five parties divide seven commissioners would be a problem according to FOL-leader Godett, PS is willing to support such a government without getting a commissioner.
If PAR (7), PNP (2) and FOL (2) do decide to work together, chances are they will bring in the Democratic Party (1) rather than Forsa Korsou (1) to strengthen the coalition and give it a majority of 12 rather than 11 in the 21-seat Island Council.
Forsa Korsou (FK) has two Antillean Parliament seats and would have to join the coalition at the federal level as well, so that in addition to FOL (also 2 Parliament seats) Cabinet posts would have to be given to FK. That is not the case with the Democratic Party (DP), which has no seats in Parliament.
On top of that, while DP-leader Norbert George never took a position on the Final Statement, Forsa Korsou leader Nelson Navarro spoke out against it, although the party did at times send mixed messages.
If FOL joins with PAR and PNP at both levels, the party will claim the Minister of Transport and Communication and the Minister of Health and Social Development. MAN held both of these before the party was ousted from the Central Government coalition in December of 2006.
Today, Thursday, the PAR negotiating committee will officially start talking with delegations of all the parties elected in the new Island Council that will take office on July 1.
Godett was also asked that if a PAR/PNP/FOL(DP) combination is formed they will use their majority in the current, outgoing Island Council to already appoint new commissioners in the Executive Council. His answer was that if FOL gets in at the federal level before July 1 it may be necessary to synchronise. “MAN dropped us for the same reason.”
So it appears that MAN with its five seats may be sidelined. Secretary-general of the blue party Humphrey Senior outlined the party’s position in negotiations when it comes to the Final Statement.
“The party considers it a mission impossible if one or more parties want to talk and either openly or secretly maintain the final statement as a basis for the new Curaçao. In other words, there must be a consensus that the Final Statement signed on November 2 is off the table and that new agreements must be entered that are consistent with what the population chose in the referendum of April 2005.”
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