The Parti Québécois (PQ) is saddened by the exclusion of its leader and the “word in s”, sovereignty, from the celebrations of the centenary of the birth of René Lévesque.
It will be Monday the kickoff of the festivities commemorating the founder and first leader of the PQ, but we do not leave room for his successor, lamented Wednesday the PQ leader, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon.
The event will take place at the Grande Bibliothèque de Montréal in the presence of a large number of guests, including Premier François Legault, himself a former PQ member, but also former leaders of the PQ, such as the former Premier Lucien Bouchard and Jean-François Lisée.
In a scrum at the parliament, Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon noted that in the context of this centenary, several things are “not consistent with the work, the thought of René Lévesque”, to use his words.
Set aside the question of independence?
“I find it hard to see how one can celebrate René Lévesque, while dismissing the Parti Québécois and dismissing the fact that he devoted his life to the independence of Quebec, and telling people: ‘it’s normal to consult you , then you are able to build a country”. »
If we dismiss the PQ, it is to dismiss the question of independence, he continued.
“It’s also fashionable to want to bury ‘the s-word’. We are no longer able to say sovereignty, yet the news constantly reminds us of the need, even the urgency, to make Quebec a country. »
Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon even recognizes that this taboo on the issue of independence does not only affect the political class and strikes much more widely, that “it’s a social phenomenon, it’s a social phenomenon that m ‘worry “.
Polls currently suggest that the PQ would collect around 10% of voting intentions, a historic low.
On Tuesday, the former PQ minister Bernard Drainville, now parachuted as a CAQ candidate in Lévis, was questioned at length about his convictions and his sovereignist past.
He repeated that this is an old “outdated” debate and that Quebecers are no longer interested in it.
Last week, at the inauguration of the statue of PQ Premier Jacques Parizeau, his successor, Lucien Bouchard, threw a stone into the pond. Honorary president of the centenary festivities of René Lévesque, he hinted that the PQ was in bad shape and that it was perhaps time to change vehicles to carry the independence project.
Mr. Lévesque died almost 35 years ago, on November 1, 1987.
Poll after poll, he remains one of Quebecers’ most beloved political figures.