The Parti Québécois must not be a collateral “victim” of “the battle between the Liberal Party and Québec solidaire”, pleads MP Pascal Bérubé, who urges Liberal leader Dominique Anglade to allow the sovereignist formation to remain a recognized parliamentary group. to the National Assembly, which will resume its work next month.
Parliamentary rules provide that a party must obtain at least 20% of the votes or have 12 elected members to be counted among the recognized parliamentary groups, which is not the case this year for either the Parti Québécois (3 MNAs) or Québec solidaire. (11 deputies).
Several departures from this rule have, however, been approved in the context of unanimous agreements between the parties in the past. This was particularly the case in 2009 when the Action Démocratique du Québec was recognized as a parliamentary group after having elected 7 members and garnering just over 16% of the vote the previous year. More recently, in 2018, both the Parti Québécois and Québec solidaire elected 10 MNAs and garnered approximately 17% and 16% of the votes respectively, which did not prevent them from being recognized as parliamentary groups.
This time, the re-elected government of François Legault has once again shown itself open to recognizing these two political parties as parliamentary groups, which would allow them to have access to additional funding and more speaking time. long in the Blue Room, especially when the time comes to debate motions or ministerial speeches.
However, the agreement of the official opposition, the Quebec Liberal Party, is necessary in this file. However, Ms. Anglade has been hesitant in the last few days to recognize the two opposition parties as parliamentary groups, instead focusing her message on the importance of reforming the voting system.
“The Liberal Party of Quebec, for the moment, refuses. The indications we have are that within their caucus, they do not want to divide their visibility with two other parties, “said the PQ MP for Matane-Matapédia, Pascal Bérubé, on Friday at a conference of press in Montreal. A “refusal” which would be explained mainly by the “frustration” that would have caused for the formation of Dominique Anglade the loss of the ridings of Verdun and Maurice-Richard – two Liberal strongholds – at the hands of Quebec solidaire on Monday.
“The Liberals do not want to give more oxygen to Quebec solidaire, to be more visible and have more means. They seem serious for the moment in this will,” said Mr. Bérubé, who therefore believes that the Parti Québécois is the “victim” of an “electoral battle” between these two parties.
“The Sense of Duty”
Pascal Bérubé therefore calls on the Liberal Party’s “sense of duty” to recognize the Parti Québécois and Québec solidaire as parliamentary groups. Especially, he pointed out, that the formation of René Lévesque collected slightly more votes (14.61%) than the Liberal Party of Quebec (14.37%) on Monday. However, he elected far fewer deputies because of the voting system in force in Quebec – and which the Coalition avenir Québec had promised to reform in 2018 before changing its tune.
“What I want to say to Dominique Anglade and the Liberal Party: given the results, we cannot accept that a party which obtained fewer votes than us considers itself legitimate to prevent us from representing more votes than them. . I call them to introspection, to analysis and ultimately to humility,” added Pascal Bérubé.
Time is running out to recognize the Parti Québécois as a parliamentary group before the party’s deputies are sworn in on October 21. “We must have an assurance that we will be able to function,” insisted Mr. Bérubé, who fears that the lack of recognition for the Parti Québécois and Québec solidaire in the Blue Room will have the effect of “paralyzing” the debates that will take place there. venue.
The PQ MP also indicated that during the last parliamentary session, the status of parliamentary group enabled the Parti Québécois to collect approximately $1.2 million per year.
The party also received an annual financial allocation of more than $1.7 million last year based on the number of votes received in the 2018 general election. This amount reached $1.6 million last year for Québec solidaire. , 2.5 million for the Liberal party and 3.8 million for the Coalition avenir Québec.