The Public Service Minister, currently at the forefront of the conflict with hospital practitioners, is considering leaving the government, according to several sources. The woman who describes herself as “entirely Tavini” had already mentioned, after the split of the independence bloc, a “withdrawal” from the executive. The president of the country had convinced her to stay in order to carry out certain reforms. This Thursday evening, despite rumors of resignation circulated by the media, the minister and her cabinet refused any comment or denial. The presidency, however, stated that “nothing has been officially decided.”
Has Vannina Crolas already “tendered her resignation” to Moetai Brotherson, as Polynésie la 1ère believes? In any case, the minister of Public Service, Labour and Employment, who did not deny the information from the Pamatai channel, did indeed raise the issue of leaving this Thursday with her teams, according to our information. But the presidency indicated at the end of the day that “no resignation has been officially recorded” on her side. Neither Vannina Crolas nor her office responded to our requests on the subject on Thursday afternoon.
The departure of the former Director General of Services of Faa’a town hall and Secretary General of Tavini, who has been part of Moetai Brotherson’s government since his election in May 2023, would not come as a surprise in itself. “It’s been in the works for a long time,” confirms a source close to the executive. In July of last year, a few weeks after the split of A Fano tià from Tavini, Vannina Crolas, on the fringes of a party meeting, explained that she had already proposed her resignation to Moetai Brotherson. “I saw that the questions related to independence and to sovereignty were not making much progress, while this is in the government’s program,” she explained to Radio 1. “More in line with this dimension of the executive’s action, she had allowed herself, like Minarii Galenon, to be persuaded to stay.” “Moetai Brotherson told me that there were important reforms and that these reforms needed to continue. I asked to meet the party leaders, notably the president and the vice-president, who both asked me to remain in the government.”
On October 11, at the Pouvana’a stela alongside Oscar Temaru, whose petition she had signed, the minister reaffirmed that she would stay “entirely Tavini,” and “not A Fano tià,” while calling for a “reconciliation” within the independence movement.
But it could be the current affairs of her portfolios that give Vannina Crolas impulses to depart. The minister, involved in overseeing social conflicts under the banner of Labor and Employment, is particularly at the forefront of the dispute in public health. The Health Minister, Raihei Ansquer, herself a frontline emergency physician, and currently traveling to the Philippines for a regional WHO committee, has kept her distance from the negotiations with hospital practitioners. And the version of the status reform contested by these professionals was prepared by the Ministry of Public Service and by the Directorate of Talents and Innovation, which falls under her responsibility. However, Vannina Crolas did not directly comment on the government’s phased salary increase proposal for the practitioners, which has so far been rejected by the strikers. In recent days, the presidency appears to have taken back control of the negotiations. Vannina Crolas is also in charge of modernizing the administration, developing the archipelagos, and vocational training.
