Éric Duhaime and the Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ) have received a dismissal from the new President of the National Assembly, Nathalie Roy, who refuses to give them access to services reserved for MNAs.
“Without minimizing the fact that a large number of voters supported your party during the last general elections, I see myself unable to respond favorably to your requests since you are not an elected member of the National Assembly and that no other parliamentarian represents your party there,” wrote Mr.me Roy in a letter sent Tuesday to the leader of the PCQ.
The day after election night, Éric Duhaime had asked the National Assembly to be able to hold press briefings inside Parliament, to have an office to receive guests and to participate in private briefing sessions on reports or on the budget.
Normally, only elected officials can have an office and hold press conferences at the Assembly. However, Mr. Duhaime pretended to be able to do so because he had collected 13% of the votes in the last elections.
His party, he insists, is the victim of a serious “electoral distortion”. By way of comparison, the Liberal Party of Quebec garnered barely one percentage point more votes than the PCQ (14%), but still elected 21 deputies.
“For the first time in the history of Quebec, a political party received more than half a million votes, without this democratic expression translating into representation in terms of deputies,” argued the Conservative leader in a letter sent to Mr.me Roy regarding his demands.
Charge against Nathalie Roy
On Wednesday, the Conservative leader strongly denounced Ms.me Roy during a press briefing held outside in the cold rain. “She is proving right all the people who said she was far too partisan to be president of the National Assembly,” he said.
“Her first two decisions, she makes them, exactly, word for word, [selon] what Mr. Legault dictated to him, ”he continued, referring to the first decision rendered by Mr.me Roy on the possibility for the Parti Québécois to sit without taking an oath to the king.
“How many times has she communicated with advisers in Mr. Legault’s office in the past few weeks and days? […] Because Jean-Pierre Charbonneau [président de l’Assemblée de 1996 à 2002] […] , he told me that in six years, he had never spoken to anyone around Lucien Bouchard. »
It should be remembered that in the months preceding the October 3 election, the leader of the PCQ had the opportunity to make himself heard inside Parliament, because he had convinced Claire Samson, an elected representative from another party, to join his training.
Mr. Duhaime also says to continue his raiding in order to recruit an unhappy caquiste deputy. “I have confidence that in the coming months, we will succeed. He also told his supporters that he intended to continue “fighting” for a place in Parliament, without however specifying how. The support of other parties — like the one he obtained from the Parti Québécois — is part of the actions he foresees at this stage.
Where to set the limit?
As for knowing at what percentage a party without MPs should be able to have access to Parliament, the Conservative leader had some suggestions to make. According to him, we should draw inspiration from the criteria used to recognize a party as an opposition.
At present, two criteria are applied: obtain 20% of the votes or elect at least twelve deputies. Mr. Duhaime points out that at the time when these criteria were defined, Quebec was living in a two-party system.
Taking into account the fact that five parties share the majority of the political spectrum, he suggests that this percentage be adjusted. “There are two and a half times more parties than there were at the time, so that means it’s between 5 and 10%”.