Aruba's Prime Minister Mike Eman has announced he will step down on 1 January 2027, in a move that caught even his coalition partners off guard. Eman, 64, who has led the Arubaanse Volkspartij (AVP) for 25 years and served as prime minister across three cabinets, said he plans to hand over party leadership at a congress in September before relinquishing the premiership months later, framing the move as a carefully managed generational transition. The announcement has stirred political uncertainty on the island (a Dutch autonomous territory in the southern Caribbean), with coalition partner Futuro saying it was not informed in advance, and the main opposition party MEP — which trailed the AVP by only around 300 votes at the last election — closely watching developments that could reshape the balance of power.