After reaching out to French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal on Thursday, in the event of a process for Quebec’s accession to independence, the leader of the Parti Québécois (PQ), Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, is recovering at work at the end of the week to draw the outlines of his country project. Meeting in a national council with some 500 activists in Drummondville, the Parti Québécois will study a series of proposals mainly relating to housing.
Gabriel Attal had a smile on his lips on Thursday evening, while, behind his desk in the Salon bleu, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon finished his speech on the occasion of the 21e alternate meeting of Quebec and French heads of government.
“Knowing, ultimately, that everything depends on the will of the people, can I raise the possibility that, in the not-so-distant future, you will be the one who, first, will deem it legitimate to declare that France will accompany Quebec in their choices and who, then, who knows, when Quebecers have said yes, will finally be able to declare: long live free Quebec! » had just said to him by the PQ representative, in a nod to the words spoken 57 years earlier by General de Gaulle in Montreal.
The French Prime Minister is not there yet. At a press conference on Friday, the day after a speech in which he praised the “close ties” of the Ve Republic and the Quebec state on the sharing of “values” such as secularism and the protection of the French language, he refused to carry out any interference in affairs affecting Quebec, including the debate on independence.
“We must obviously respect Quebec in its capacity to lead political debates and internal democratic debates,” argued Mr. Attal during a press conference held a stone’s throw from parliament. “I do not want, here, through a statement, to give the impression that I am taking sides in a debate that is taking place here, in Quebec political life. »
In his speech at the Salon Bleu, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon still saw fit to recall that “two presidents [français]Giscard d’Estaing and Chirac, at the dawn of our referendums, [avaient] used a formula that was both skillful and fraternal: France, they said, will support Quebec in its choices.”
“You still have a little time, Mr. Prime Minister, before considering taking this step again, but this pragmatic fraternity is an essential element in our balance of power here and in the rest of the world,” said the leader. PQist, staring at the young representative of the Macron government.
” Third cycle “
Within the PQ staff, we see Thursday, during which “PSPP” and the French Prime Minister also had the opportunity to discuss privately, as a victory. “As a party that supports independence, we wanted to make it understand that there was potentially a change of cycle, therefore a third cycle which would open in the coming years,” he told Duty a source close to the PQ leader.
This is also what Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon will try to make PQ activists realize in a speech planned for Sunday, this source told us. “There is the possibility that we will have, in the not so distant future, a third referendum, whereas this was impossible before. »
The PQ may be prancing around in the polls, but it still has two and a half years before the next election.
Until then, his leader has disseminated before him a series of announcements that he wishes to brandish in 2026 to convince voters to follow him in his plan for access to sovereignty: after the budget of the year one tabled Last fall, its immigration plan will come later this year — it will include, among other things, revised acceptance thresholds. Then, in 2025, the “blue book”, inside which PQ activists must include the main details of their country project, currency and defense, in particular.
At the end of the week, they will focus on the housing issue. The members present will have the opportunity to express their opinions on around fifty proposals in order to curb the current crisis. “We are committed to implementing bold policies to respond to this crisis,” writes the president of the PQ political committee, Camille Pellerin-Forget, in a document provided to activists.
The PQ could therefore choose this weekend to include in its platform for 2026 the commitment to “ban Airbnb-type rentals in cities where the vacancy rate is less than 3%, excluding areas “, to “establish a public, universal and compulsory rent register” or even to “finance the construction over 5 years of a minimum of 45,000 off-market housing units, including 10,000 for students”.
Less than two months after the adoption of Minister France-Élaine Duranceau’s Law 31 on housing, the PQ is evaluating several ideas aimed at canceling its effects.
The weekend’s package of proposals contains, for example, a measure aimed at eliminating the provisions of the law restricting the use of lease assignment, while “reinforcing[çant] the legal recourses of owners against transfers made for profit”. Another proposal aims to abolish “clause F”, this clause which, when checked, requires the tenant to accept a rent increase.
“Françoise David Law”
Two weeks after having deplored the use of the term “Françoise David law” to qualify a proposal from Québec solidaire to protect vulnerable seniors, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon will also vote on a proposal aimed at “extending protection against evictions to seniors in 65 years and over whose income is below the income ceiling determining compelling need.”
Québec solidaire first had this idea, by tabling a bill in February 2023, which also planned to lower the age of admission to 65 years. This week, the Coalition Avenir Québec government said it was “open” to studying the legislative text.
Asked Tuesday about his intentions regarding the QS bill, which he had accused of wallowing in “media moments,” “PSPP” maintained that he would support it. “I made a commitment that if there was a glimmer of hope of protecting seniors from evictions, I would [donne] All I have. I’m going to do it this week. »
The PQ National Council begins Saturday morning and will end early Sunday afternoon.