Update Country Report Curaçao 07 Feb 2020

Event

In late January the education minister, Marilyn Alcalá-Wallé, resigned from the cabinet following the launch of a criminal investigation into her.

Analysis

The prime minister, Eugene Rhuggenaath, announced Ms Alcalá-Wallé's resignation in a press conference. He noted that the educaton minister had stepped down because the Prosecutor's Office's criminal investigation following a complaint in October 2019, which alleged that Ms Alcalá-Wallé had a conflict of interest; she is reportedly the chair of an education foundation that had not been previously disclosed under the ministerial candidates' screening law. According to Curaçao's regulations, any minister under criminal investigation must step down for the duration of the process.

Ms Alcalá-Wallé has subsequently claimed that the initial complaint was politically motivated and intended to undermine the Rhuggenaath administration. Although she did not speculate on who filed the complaint, an opposition legislator had raised questions about her screening in September of last year.

Elections are due by April 2021 and opposition parties may be stepping up their criticism of the Rhuggenaath government as they seek to build on their own popularity ahead of the polls. The largest opposition party is the Movementu Futuro Kòrsou (MFK), which currently has five seats in the 21-seat legislature. Mr Rhuggenaath heads a three-party coalition government comprising his Partido Antiá Restrukturá (PAR)-of which Ms Alcalá-Wallé is also a member-plus the Partido MAN and the Partido Inovashon Nashonal. The coalition holds only 12 seats, and so the loss of even a few seats could allow the opposition parties (MFK and three other parties with two or less seats, respectively) to form a governing coalition.

We expect the government to come under increased pressure over the course of 2020, with opposition parties drawing on popular frustration with ongoing economic weakness, the impact of rising Venezuelan immigration to the island and sustained austerity measures. Opposition parties are likely to capitalise on the potential fallout from the education minister's scandal, and to present the Rhuggenaath administration as increasingly unfit to run the country.