The Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) is managed “like a company […] rather than a democracy,” according to PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon.
His counterpart from Québec solidaire (QS), Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, even mentioned a “pyramidal organization” when speaking of the party of François Legault.
The two leaders reacted to the revelations of Radio-Canada affirming that Prime Minister François Legault asked elected officials in the Capitale-Nationale and Chaudière-Appalaches regions not to publicly express their dissent on the abandonment of the third link, this flagship promise of a highway tunnel between Quebec and Lévis.
According to the PQ leader, there was no debate within the CAQ on the subject.
In a press scrum at the National Assembly, Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon said that he still believes that the party line is necessary in a political formation.
The parliamentary leader of QS, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, affirms that this attitude is typical of François Legault who would be allergic to debate and criticism.
“I understand the deputies of the CAQ to be in beautiful green toy and to say to themselves: ‘is it a political party or is it a pyramidal organization?’ It does not make sense. »
“It is clear that, under François Legault, there is a control of the message pushed to limits that we had never seen before”, declared the interim Liberal leader, Marc Tanguay.
He believes that the debates must take place within the caucus and that then the elected officials must rally.
According to him, a member who wants to be a dissenter on a subject must ask himself if he is in the right party.
Last week, Mr. Legault maintained that the party line was essential in a political formation.
A former Caquiste MP, Émilie Foster, came out, saying that backbench MPs are “crushed” and reduced to “complete silence” by the party line.