The day after the departure of Émilise Lessard-Therrien as co-spokesperson for Québec solidaire (QS), Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois was invited on Tuesday to reflect on his management style at the head of the party.
Accosted at the entrance to the caucus of elected solidarity officials, the member for Rosemont, Vincent Marissal, who had been the only one to support Ms. Lessard-Therrien during the race for female co-spokesperson last year, admitted that Mr. Nadeau-Dubois was due for a reflection on his way of managing the party.
“The short answer is yes. The long answer is: what are we changing? We change every day; he’s adjusting every day,” he said. “I know he knows there are things that need to change. »
In the morning, two elected officials from the party came to the defense of the solidarity co-spokesperson, whose leadership has been publicly called into question since his fellow spokesperson abandoned ship on Monday. Expected at the National Assembly, the main person concerned instead absented himself from parliament to better “digest the events”.
“He is shaken by the situation,” explained a press officer from the parliamentary wing of QS.
At a press conference in parliament with solidarity MP Christine Labrie, the parliamentary leader of the political party, Alexandre Leduc, deplored the fact that we were trying to “look for someone to blame” to justify Ms. Lessard-Therrien’s decision.
“It’s like playing werewolf. So, who are we hanging tonight? Who is the culprit today? “, he told journalists. “Gabriel, he’s not a leader. He can’t wake up one morning and say: “this is what we do”. »
Weakened leadership?
In her message published Monday at dawn, Émilise Lessard-Therrien designates the actions of “a small team of professionals woven tightly around the male spokesperson” to explain her departure. She deplores the fact that “an organizational blockage has arisen, within a party which was created to do politics differently”.
According to the information collected The duty On Monday, some members of the caucus believe that Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois is due for a reflection on his place as spokesperson. In our pages on Tuesday, former candidates also asked him to begin a process of introspection on his leadership.
According to MP Christine Labrie, who participated in the race against Émilise Lessard-Therrien last year, the team of MPs is “in mourning”. “The caucus is affected, for sure, by Émilise’s decision. Many were taken by surprise by her decision,” she said, before specifying that she “does not see any dissension” in the caucus.
Questioned at the entrance to their daily caucus on Tuesday, several deputies refused to stop. This is the case of the whip at Québec solidaire, Alejandra Zaga Mendez, and the member for Jean-Lesage, Sol Zanetti.
On Monday, the latter had promised Émilise Lessard-Therrien that her “difficult and courageous” gesture would not go unnoticed within the party. “Political struggle is not supposed to be this exhausting,” he wrote on Facebook.