In the corridors of the National Assembly on Wednesday morning, everyone had the impression that Quebec was experiencing a “return of the repressed”.
In the thought of Freud, father of psychoanalysis, it is the “process” by which elements “preserved in the unconscious tend to reappear”, in consciousness or behavior, through “slips of the tongue” or “missed acts”. » (J.-F. Rabain, in Dict. international psychoanalysis).
ADQ and CAQ
At Assnat, on Wednesday, the repressed was the federalist-sovereignist axis (AFS), which structured the political life of Quebec from the 1960s until around 2014. From the election of Lesage to the defeat of Marois.
Mario Dumont, with the ADQ, had, after the 1995 referendum, tried to put an end to this axis by proclaiming a “10-year moratorium” on “constitutional questions”. But Lucien Bouchard, the possibility of a quick third referendum and, subsequently, the sponsorship scandal will revive the “AFS”.
The emergence of François Legault’s CAQ in 2011 will represent the most concrete attempt to surpass the AFS. His victory in 2018, his relative success in keeping these questions aside until 2022, will make people believe in definitive overcoming.
- Listen to the political meeting between Antoine Robitaille and Benoît Dutrizac via QUB :
No Movement
This was without counting the successes of the PQ and PSPP since the 2022 elections. After the negation of the nation by Couillard’s PLQ, followed by the pale blue thinking of François Legault, a part of the population (and a portion of the electorate of the CAQ) seems to want to turn towards a more assertive nationalism. But PSPP is a prisoner of the eternal PQ questions: currency, referendum, borders, etc.
Many of today’s liberals have understood this and, worried about the successes of the PQ leader, dream of blocking him by seeing in it an opportunity to get back on track. But it was no longer these liberals of the Lesage, Ryan or Bourassa eras, so many consistent federalists who sought to strengthen the Quebec state in the Dominion.
Since the failures of Meech, Charlottetown and Harper’s so-called “open federalism”, the “federalist” label has been reduced to anti-sovereignty coupled with unconditional support for Canada as it exists. It is above all a “Canadianism”. Denis Coderre, who has no roots in the PLQ, enjoys imagining himself leader of the “No, thank you!” movement. In doing so he stimulates the imagination of Canadianists.
Photo Nicolas Lachance
The ancient divide is suddenly reactivated, reinvigorated.
Some people don’t believe it. The political scientist Éric Montigny has often announced the “end of yes and no”. I send him the photo of PSPP meeting Coderre in the Assnat hall. My question: “Is this a harbinger of the return of the Yes-No divide?” His response: “Surely that’s what these two men want. Except that the divisions are not based on politicians, but on the evolution of society.”
Was the repressed so repressed that any return became impossible? I would tend to answer no. For the simple reason that the fundamental problem, that of the political status of Quebec, has not been resolved in any way. Despite years of existential debates, there was neither renewed federalism nor sovereignty.
And we cannot repress this impasse indefinitely.