Politicians of various allegiances accuse MP Ruba Ghazal of engaging in “foreign interference” with her campaign in Montreal for the French New Popular Front. An accusation that Québec solidaire strongly contests.
“I am not sure, dear colleague, that this foreign interference on your part is well advised,” indicated CAQ minister Christopher Skeete on the X platform.
On Tuesday, the Mercier MP, who is part of Québec solidaire, announced that she would be at the Mont-Royal metro station “to distribute leaflets to encourage French people in Quebec to block the path of the extreme right and vote for the New Popular Front.”
According to the leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec, Éric Duhaime, this is “unacceptable”. “There are many people who are uncomfortable with the fact that an MP paid by Quebec taxpayers is in the Montreal metro distributing leaflets for candidates in the election of a foreign country. By definition, it is interference,” he said Thursday morning.
Québec solidaire disputes these accusations. The party points out that in France, the law defines interference as a series of actions committed “on behalf of or in the name of a foreign power” that undermine “the fundamental interests of the nation.” On the Canadian side, it adds, the federal government defines it as the conduct of “clandestine, deceptive or [constituant] a threat “.
This is not what Ruba Ghazal is doing, the party argues. “This is only about international solidarity and free expression in a democracy.”
The first round of the French legislative elections is due to take place on June 30. Besides Mme Ghazal, MPs Etienne Grandmont (Taschereau) and Haroun Bouazzi (Maurice-Richard) also took to social media to urge French people living in Quebec to support the New Popular Front.
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