Since November 19, 2025, Minister Gerlien Croes made a business trip to Curaçao utilizing a private jet, something that is certainly not customary for a government minister. Our job as members of Parliament is to control and monitor the government. Within this context, we have asked questions to Minister Croes since November of last year regarding her trip by private jet, in order to get clarity on this trip within the framework of the transparency that Minister Croes herself has always advocated for.
182 days without an answer: A lack of respect for Parliament and the people
Today, 182 days have passed without Minister Croes being willing to answer our questions. Minister Croes does not respect our Constitution, because according to our fundamental law, a minister has the duty and obligation to answer questions from Parliament. Minister Croes does not respect Parliament, and much less the people. We represent the people, and the people demand clarity. A minister must be sincere, honest, and must be transparent in their actions. Minister Croes is practicing a politics of structural and organized deception. She promised a new politics, a different politics, a politics of transparency and honesty. Today she practices “old school politics”: a politics of lying, manipulation, and even persecution of all those who do not share her way of thinking.
Questionable payments and a lack of transparency
A trip with a private airplane to Curaçao costs between $8,000 and $10,000. Minister Croes has said since last year that she paid for this herself, but to this day she does NOT want to answer to Parliament regarding how she paid for this, to whom she paid, and how much she paid. The license that this airplane possesses does not permit it to charge passengers, meaning that it sounds quite strange for Minister Gerlien Croes to say that she paid for this trip herself. Minister Gerlien Croes could have ended this discussion since last year if she were honest and sincere, but she opted to be an arrogant leader. Her arrogance and lack of respect for our Constitution and our Parliament are proof that transparency has become her enemy. As much as she advocated for transparency, today when she is in the driver’s seat she runs, she hides, she leaves questions unanswered, and she refuses to debate.
We of the MEP faction even resorted to a public records request (LOB-verzoek), which Minister Croes also opted to leave unanswered. Not only is she hindering Parliament from doing its job, but the attitude of arrogance and superiority that Minister Gerlien Croes wants to project is shameful. She forgot something very fundamental: the people put you there and the people can remove you, and when transparency becomes your enemy as a minister, the people will draw their own conclusion!