By Ben Meade

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – St. Lucia’s former Foreign Affairs Minister Rufus Bousquet is expected to return to the Stephenson King Cabinet as the Prime Minister makes a bid to end a rift which threatened to crumble his administration.

Prime Minister King earlier this week indicated that there would be some changes to the government. At that time he said that those changes would be announced in the coming days.

Bousquet confirmed to the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) late Tuesday that he would be regaining a place in the Cabinet but declined to disclose what position that would be, saying that he did not want to pre-empt King's announcement.

“I think the prime minister ought to get the opportunity to announce my portfolio when he feels good and ready,” he said in an interview on CMC’s Prime Time Caribbean television programme.

However, the Choiseul MP hinted that his new post would be “more prominent” than his previous appointment.

“I’ve never been completely out of the circle of decision making but at least I’ll be in a more prominent position and one in which perhaps I’ll be in a position to influence things a little more.”

Bousquet was fired from his position as Minister of Foreign Affairs last June by the then prime minister Sir John Compton, in a fiasco over the United Workers Party (UWP) administration’s decision to switch diplomatic allegiance from China to Taiwan.

King said that Bousquet had been dismissed for deliberately ignoring a demand from Sir John not to sign the documents paving the way for the change until a scheduled Cabinet meeting.

Since Sir John’s death last September the UWP has faced several bouts of infighting which reached fever pitch this month when Bousquet and Deputy Speaker of the Parliament Marcus Nicholas withdrew their support from the prime minister.

The two MPs adopted that position to press King to dismiss Economic Affairs and Planning Minister Ausbert d'Auvergne because they felt he was wielding too much power and influence in the UWP administration. The minister, who had been brought into the Cabinet by Sir John, resigned last week.

“Obviously it has not been an easy time for this government. We have gone through a number of challenges, starting of course with the death of Sir John, which pretty much put us out of alignment so to speak. We had to readjust and see where else we could go in order to get the leadership that we needed to drive our agenda forward,” said Bousquet.

“It’s been a difficult period. A number of things have happened and there have been a number of uneasy alliances that were made from the very inception shortly after winning the election.

“I think we have now sort of settled into a groove. I think that the elected representatives are going to feel a level of satisfaction in terms of how things are going and I think some of the major impediments to our advancement have been removed and I think we can proceed from here,” he added.

Bousquet admitted that he and King have not always seen eye-to-eye on several issues but said he believes they would be able to work together in a UWP government to benefit the people of St Lucia.

“I suppose one can say that it is not unusual for political jousting to occur. To some extent it might be a little irregular in Caribbean politics but it’s not unheard of and we’ve been through all of that. At the end of the day we couldn’t think about our personal differences,” he said.

“We had to rise above our emotional considerations and start thinking about what was in the best interest of the country and I think it’s in the best interest of the country for us to avoid elections; for us to come together as a unit and get to work.”

Amidst the turmoil in the government, the main opposition St Lucia Labour Party (SLP) has been planning to table a motion of no confidence in parliament.

However, Bousquet denied rumours that he was planning to work with the opposition to topple the King administration.

“Obviously in situations such as ours the opposition forces are going to take this opportunity. There was a lot of misinformation. There was a lot of speculation insofar as what I was doing but at the end of the day we’ve reached where we are now. I’m satisfied with where we are and I think the people of St Lucia are satisfied," he said.

CMC/bm/dmb/08