The elected members of the Parti Québécois (PQ) always seek to avoid pronouncing the oath of allegiance to King Charles III. Everything suggested Monday evening that they would not force the doors of the Blue Room when the 43 opened.e legislature, Tuesday.
PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon and MPs Pascal Bérubé and Joël Arseneau have always taken an oath only to the people of Quebec. Having failed to meet the requirement of the oath of allegiance to the crown, they may not be eligible to sit. “You will allow me to keep the suspense”, was content to say “PSPP”, Monday, when asked about the intentions of his caucus on the eve of the start of parliamentary work.
Quebec parliamentarians will go to the National Assembly on Tuesday to elect a new president or a new president. Everything indicates that it will be the member for Montarville, Nathalie Roy. The vote should take place around 2 p.m.
However, the three elected members of the PQ have planned to participate in a demonstration against the oath of allegiance to the king at 1 p.m. Tuesday, in front of the Parliament building. They intend to leave the premises around 2 p.m. The sovereignist formation then organized a press briefing which will take place during the afternoon, but the time of which has not been specified.
Relaunched Monday evening about its plans for Tuesday, the PQ communications team was content to say: “We’ll see tomorrow. The party might want to wait for the election of a new presidency to make its intentions known.
The presidency at the center of the discussions
After having ruled out taking the oath to the crown for some time, the 11 deputies of Québec solidaire pronounced the words last week that will allow them to sit on Tuesday afternoon in the hall of the National Assembly. They did so away from the cameras, in the company of the Secretary General of the National Assembly, Siegfried Peters.
As for the elected members of the PQ, they will be threatened with expulsion if they try to tread the carpet of the Blue Room, according to the outgoing president, François Paradis. In a legal opinion issued in early November, the former elected representative of Lévis asserts that “the sergente-at-arms [pourra légitimement] expel” anyone refusing to take the oath to the King of Canada.
“Although the National Assembly may, within the limits set by the Constitution, modify by legislative means the laws which are applicable to it, it cannot derogate therefrom by simple motion”, could be read in the decision.
In a letter published in the pages of To have to, six jurists, including the former President of the National Assembly Louise Harel, take issue with Mr. Paradis’ remarks. ” Decision […] is amazing to say the least, they write. Excluding elected members of the National Assembly is a gesture that is at odds with what the institution of parliamentary privilege suggests. It would therefore be appropriate that the first gesture of the next president […] or to annul this decision. »
Contrary to the opinion of the presidency, the signatories of the missive consider “still as relevant the adoption of a motion aimed at allowing deputies who have not taken the oath to King Charles III to sit in the Blue Room”. .
This option, “insufficient”, according to the leader of the government, had been ruled out by the Coalition avenir Québec last month. The party favors for the moment the adoption of a bill making the oath to the king optional.
The period of parliamentary work which opens on Tuesday will end on December 9, according to the calendar of the National Assembly.