San Juan, Mar 24 (EFE).– Prime Minister Freundel Stuart wants Barbados to renounce Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II as head of state and declare itself a republic.

A spokesperson in the prime minister’s office confirmed to Efe on Tuesday that Stuart made “personal” comments in favor of republicanism over the weekend at an activity hosted by the ruling Democratic Labor Party.

“We cannot pat ourselves on the shoulder at having gone into independence, having decolonized our politics, we cannot pat ourselves on the shoulders at having decolonized our jurisprudence by delinking from the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and explain to anybody why we continue to have a monarchical system,” Stuart said Sunday, according to the Jamaica Observer.

“We respect (the queen) very highly as head of the Commonwealth and accept that she and all of her successors will continue to be at the apex of our political understanding,” the prime minister said.

“But in terms of Barbados’ constitutional status we have to move from a monarchical system to a republican form of government in the very near future,” Stuart said.

Like other former British colonies, including Canada and Australia, Barbados acknowledges Queen Elizabeth II as head of state and she is represented on the island of 300,000 inhabitants by a governor-general. EFE