THE HAGUE - The Kingdom Council of Ministers will meet this Friday for decisions regarding corona support for Curaçao, Aruba and St. Maarten. The islands believe that the Netherlands puts a knife at their throat every time.

Undersecretary Raymond Knops of Kingdom Relations insists on structural reforms, for example by tackling the extensive and expensive public service. Prime Minister Eugene Rhuggenaath says that what Knops wants, his government wants also. “But in times of crisis you also have to tackle the urgent situation first. Many people survive on food aid. If we tighten the abdominal belt even more tightly, as the Netherlands demands, problems will not be solved, but it will rather become bigger.”

Last week, a group of prominent people who feel connected to Curaçao, including John Leerdam, Tania Cross, and Ed Nijpels, called on the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte to show compassion and to be more lenient. VNO-NCW CEO Hans de Boer also warned that the crisis is more likely to help a populist to come to power.

There will be elections next year and it remains to be seen whether Rhuggenaath will be able to be re-elected or whether the Curaçaoans will settle their grievances with him for the current crisis. "Before the corona crisis, we were already working on structural solutions to get out of the economic crisis," he says. "I hope that we can come to a working plan on the basis of equality with the Netherlands, instead of having everything imposed from above."