For the Prime Minister of Jamaica, Andrew Holness, the switch to a republican regime is "inevitable".

On the occasion of a visit by Prince William, marked by demonstrations denouncing the role of the United Kingdom, a former colonial power, in the slave trade, the head of government said that a transition of the country towards a republican model was only a matter of time.

Jamaica is "moving on to something else", he said on Wednesday March 23, responding to the prince, second in line to the British throne, who conveyed his grandmother's "deep affection" for Jamaica.

“It is inevitable that we will move towards a republic to fulfill the will of the people of Jamaica and our ambition to become an independent, developed and prosperous country,” he then tweeted.

(1/4) I was delighted to welcome the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and Kate Middleton to Jamaica and to the Office of the Prime Minister for a courtesy call this morning.

pic.twitter.com/vAq7bznWet

— Andrew Holness (@AndrewHolnessJM) March 23, 2022

"Unresolved" questions

Independent and a member of the Commonwealth since 1962, the island is a constitutional monarchy and its head of state is Queen Elizabeth, who has just celebrated her 70 years of reign.

Andrew Holness had previously told the press that the visit of William and his wife Kate offered an opportunity to address "unresolved" issues.

Jamaica would thus follow the example of Barbados, which became a republic in November 2021, during a ceremony attended by William's father, Prince Charles.

Colonized by the Spaniards after the arrival of Christopher Columbus, Jamaica came under the yoke of the British crown in 1655, which used slavery to develop the island's economy.

"Slavery was despicable and should never have happened," Prince William said, acknowledging the island's "pain", at a dinner hosted by Jamaica's Governor-General Patrick Linton Allen. representative of the queen.

Expressing his "deep sadness", he agreed with his father, who had recognized in 2021 that "the appalling atrocity of slavery forever stains our history".

William, however, did not offer the apologies demanded on Tuesday on his arrival by protesters opposed to his visit who also wanted compensation, for the role of the British monarchy in the slave trade which brought hundreds of thousands of Africans to work. on the island in inhumane conditions.

"Eternal Gratitude"

The prince also expressed his "eternal gratitude" to the Windrush generation, these tens of thousands of Caribbean immigrants, mainly from Jamaica, who came to help rebuild the United Kingdom after the Second World War.

The treatment reserved by the United Kingdom to these immigrants who arrived legally, but then deprived of rights, or even sent back for lack of the necessary documents, caused a scandal.

William and Kate's Caribbean tour had already suffered a setback with the cancellation last week of the first stop in a village in Belize, due to a dispute between the local population and a charity of which William is the sponsor.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are due to travel to the Bahamas next.

With AFP

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