THE HAGUE - Yesterday, the Dutch Senate held a debate with Undersecretary Raymond Knops of the Interior and Kingdom Relations about the Caribbean part of the Kingdom. The policy of the government was discussed in detail. In particular, there was a lot of criticism of the introduction of the COHO scheme. Senator Peter Nicolaï, for example, expressed his surprise at how Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten were put under pressure in the summer of 2020. According to Nicolaï, the countries were forced to place their signature under an agreement whereby representatives of the people had to adjust their laws. "We don't have the right to impose our wish on the Aruban legislator, do we?" Nicolaï wondered. He sits in the Senate on behalf of the Party for the Animals.

Nicolaï also wanted to know why the Undersecretary came up with the COHO proposal: "Anyone who has set the statutory principles high will not come up with the COHO proposal, it is a form of power play." According to Nicolaï, such a power-play normally happens between states, but it concerns four countries that together form a state.

According to PvdA senator Jeroen Recourt, the islands have been hit unprecedentedly hard by Covid-19. Recourt stated that the Kingdom is currently determined by the differences and not by the similarities. According to him, it seems that the Netherlands has enforced its entire wish list regarding the islands as conditions for the financial support and thus created even more distance between the countries of the Kingdom.