The Second Marlin cabinet was the sixth Cabinet of Sint Maarten installed following the achievement of constituent country status of Sint Maarten within the Kingdom of the Netherlands on 10 October 2010. The cabinet was a coalition between the National Alliance, the United St. Maarten Party and the Democratic Party.[3]

Second Marlin cabinet

6th Cabinet of Sint Maarten
Date formed20 December 2016[1]
Date dissolved15 January 2018[2]
People and organisations
Head of stateWillem-Alexander
Head of governmentWilliam Marlin
Rafael Boasman
Member partiesNational Alliance (NA)
United St. Maarten Party (USP)
Democratic Party (DP)
History
Election2016 election
PredecessorMarlin I
SuccessorMarlin-Romeo I

Irma and aftermath

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After hurricane Irma hit the island in September 2017, most of the houses on the island were destroyed. While the French part of the island is part of the European Union, the Dutch part is not - and therefore Sint Maarten could not make use of European emergency funds, and was dependent on Dutch aid.[4] The Dutch government made 550 million euro available, but demanded the institution of anti-fraud measures as was already previously agreed with the Sint Maarten government before the aid would be made available.[5] Marlin refused to implement some of those measures though, and this led on November 2 to a motion of no confidence in the Sint Maarten parliament for Marlin and some of his ministers.[6]

After the motion of no confidence was accepted, Marlin tendered the resignation of the cabinet to governor Eugene Holiday and requested elections to be held.[7] As customary, Marlin would lead a caretaker cabinet until a new cabinet would be appointed. However on November 10, another motion of no confidence was accepted in parliament, demanding that Marlin immediately stepped aside. Marlin refused, which led to the Dutch Kingdom Council of Ministers to issue an instruction to the governor to accept the resignation of Marlin as prime minister, and appoint the deputy prime minister Rafael Boasman as his replacement. This was executed by the governor on November 24. The remaining cabinet will continue as caretaker cabinet until the elections early 2018.

After the excusing of Marlin, the cabinet started implementing the demanded measures by the Dutch government, which allowed the transfer of aid funds. The aid funds are mostly distributed through international organizations, such as the World Bank.[8]

Composition

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The cabinet is composed as follows:[1][9]

Main office-holders
Office Name Party Since
Prime Minister William Marlin NA 20 December 2016
Rafael Boasman USP 24 November 2017[10]
Minister of Housing, Physical Planning, and Environment Christophe Emmanuel NA 20 December 2016
Minister of Finance Richard Gibson NA 20 December 2016
Minister of Justice Rafael Boasman USP 20 December 2016
Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunications Rafael Boasman (interim) USP 20 December 2016
Mellissa Arrindell-Doncher USP 4 April 2017[11]
Minister of Healthcare, Social Development, and Labor Emil Lee DP 20 December 2016
Minister of Education, Culture, Youth, and Sports Silveria Jacobs NA 20 December 2016
Minister Plenipotentiary of Sint Maarten Henrietta Doran-York NA 20 December 2016
Deputy Minister Plenipotentiary of Sint Maarten Hasani Ellis DP 20 December 2016

References

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  1. ^ a b "Upgrade New Governing Operating System 21.0 to secure future Growth". SMN News. 20 December 2016.
  2. ^ "New Interim Council of Ministers sworn-in headed by Prime Minister Leona Marlin-Romeo". Soualiga Newsday. 15 January 2018.
  3. ^ "Red, white and blue coalition to again form Govt., UP out" (PDF). The Daily Herald. 16 November 2016.
  4. ^ "Dutch PM promises Sint Maarten financial support for hurricane recovery". NL Times. 2017-09-13. Retrieved 2017-12-31.
  5. ^ "Kabinet trekt 550 miljoen uit voor wederopbouw Sint-Maarten". NRC (in Dutch). Retrieved 2017-12-31.
  6. ^ Dept., Editorial. "UPDATE Kingdom Government orders Marlin's dismissal". www.thedailyherald.sx. Retrieved 2017-12-31.
  7. ^ "Cabinet Marlin II submits resignation: Sends National Decree to dissolve Parliament". www.sintmaartengov.org. Retrieved 2017-12-31.
  8. ^ "Op het water is de wederopbouw van Sint-Maarten in volle gang". Trouw (in Dutch). Retrieved 2017-12-31.
  9. ^ "Governing Programme submitted to Holiday, swearing-in on Tuesday". The Daily Herald. 16 December 2016. pp. 1, 9.
  10. ^ "UPDATE Kingdom Government orders Marlin's dismissal". The Daily Herald. 24 November 2017.
  11. ^ "Appointment and Oath Taking Ceremony for New Minister of TEATT". SMN News. 4 April 2017.