The Option nationale (ON) collective of Québec solidaire denies any exodus of solidarity separatists for the benefit of the Parti Québécois. “No one has “left” the party,” he maintains.
In an open letter sent to Duty, two current members of the ON executive responded to party elders who published an open letter on Saturday entitled “The end of the mirage of solidarity”. In it, thirteen former ONists deplored “the disappointing results of the merger of Option nationale and Québec solidaire” in 2017 and invited the separatists to rally to the Parti Québécois (PQ).
However, according to the activists at the head of the ON collective of Québec solidaire (QS), there is simply no independence “mirage” at QS.
“We deplore the tendency of many separatists to engage in contests of ideological purity which are harmful to the cause,” write Jimmy Thibodeau and Nadia Poirier in a letter replying to the first. “We salute the renewed sovereignist ardor of the PQ since 2020, but nevertheless QS has done useful work by maintaining, since its founding, its promise of a constituent assembly in a first mandate. »
In 2017, the members of Option nationale supported an extraordinary convention in principle for the party to merge with Québec solidaire. The leader of the party at the time, Sol Zanetti, became a member of the left-wing party a few months later.
A merger that “did not have the expected effect”
In their text this weekend, the former members of ON raised the low support in the polls of QS voters for the independence project — 35% according to the latest Léger. This statistic demonstrates, according to them, that the 2017 merger “did not have the desired effect”.
“In our eyes, the Parti Québécois of PSPP will have succeeded, in a short time and with few means, in concretely advancing the independence of Quebec,” they write. “It’s time to come together and converge on a vehicle that is not afraid to make independence its priority. »
The current ON collective of QS questions these conclusions. “These polls are not aimed at our members or our activists, but simply at our potential electorate,” write Mr. Thibodeau and M.me Poirier. “We are betting on seeing the glass half full: if several supporters choose our party despite its independence commitment, we see this as an opportunity to seek additional allies for the movement. »
The signatories of the text also specify that “no one has “left” the party” to join the ranks of the PQ. “No signatory to the text was affiliated with Québec solidaire at the time of publication,” they clarified. Asked about this by The duty,Mme Poirier, who is vice-president of communications at the ON collective, made a point of saying that there has been “no exodus” of independentists at QS in recent months.
In her first press briefing at the National Assembly as co-spokesperson for QS on Tuesday, Émilise Lessard-Therrien reiterated that she would make sovereignty a priority issue. “What people want is for us to talk about it more. For me, it’s a commitment that I made,” she said.
Co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois also wanted to point out that the signatories of the first letter had never campaigned for Québec solidaire. “These are people who have been in the Parti Québécois for a while now,” he said.
The leader of the PQ, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, for his part, opens his arms to pro-independence voters. On Tuesday, he said he had seen an increase in the number of party members since the 2022 election. “Where do each of the members come from? We do not have specific information, but I will simply answer what Jacques Parizeau has already said: “let the last one to enter leave the door open”,” he said.