ORANJESTAD- Independent Councilman Koos Sneek of the List Sneek and his fraction assistant, Sjahairah Fleming will start a local branch of the Christen Democratisch Appel (CDA) Party on St. Eustatius.

Sneek writes, in a press release, that the approval for the founding of such a local branch was received from the board of CDA in The Netherlands. The approval should not be seen as a complete surprise, taking into consideration that former Government Commissioner Marnix van Rij until very recent held a position at the Party’s board.

“This initiative is the combined effort of Ms. Sjahairah Fleming and myself. We both believe that the moment is here for a fresh initiative in the political spectrum on Statia. For this purpose, we have chosen to become a branch of a national party, in our case the CDA, because we believe that to achieve what we want for Statia, direct ties with a national party offers a better way to success”, according to Sneek.

Sneek says he also believes that it allows the local party to have access to a vast amount of information and knowledge through the CDA library and the many training options through the CDA Steenkampinstituut

Party leader

CDA Statia has started small with just ten, mainly young members. According to Sneek it is the intention to expand the membership in the coming months. In December the party will be holding our first general membership meeting.

According to Sneek the intention is for Sjahairah Fleming to be the party leader, with the job to lead the new CDA-Statia into the next island council elections which will take place in March 2023.