Senior Legault government officials, including the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Martin Koskinen, attacked Quebecor columnist Mathieu Bock-Côté on Monday, accusing him of being the “spokesperson” of the Parti Québécois ( QP).
In a tweet published at the end of the afternoon, the one who has often been described as the alter ego of the Caquist Prime Minister also pointed to the daily columnist The duty and former leader of the PQ, Jean-François Lisée as another figure who “recently very often” supports the positions of the 3e opposition group.
“No political party, except in a Quebec radio station, obtains the same privilege. Relevant information for readers and listeners, ”wrote Martin Koskinen in reference to the treatment obtained by the conservative leader Éric Duhaime, often on the microphone as a radio host in the Quebec region.
“Recently, your interventions have been more systematically pequisitive. You are free to do so, ”he then replied to Mathieu Bock-Côté, who underlined that he had already defended ideas put forward by the Coalition avenir Québec in the past.
Earlier in the day, the special adviser to the Prime Minister’s Office, Stéphane Gobeil, himself a former member of PQ cabinets, had criticized Mathieu Bock-Côté for “promoting the PQ daily”.
“We need to level up. There, I have the impression of reading a dried prune. Sincerely,” he concluded later.
These speeches are part of the context where the government is increasingly targeting the PQ, whose support is on the rise according to a recent survey by the firm Léger carried out on behalf of the TVA channel and published in early May.
François Legault himself also shot more arrows than usual towards the PQ on the last day of his party’s convention, which was held last weekend in Sherbrooke.
“The problem with the PQ is that they are betting everything on the great evening of sovereignty. The PQ tell us: we must protect secularism, we must protect our language; on that, we agree. But we must act now. And to act now, you have to be in government, ”he said.