Photo: Karoline Boucher The Canadian Press Gabriel Attal had a smile on his lips on Thursday evening, while, behind his lectern in the Salon bleu, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon finished his speech on the occasion of the 21st alternating meeting of Quebec and French heads of government.
After reaching out to French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal on Thursday, in the event of a process for Quebec's accession to independence, the leader of the Parti Québécois (PQ), Paul St-Pierre Plamondon gets back to work at the end of the week to draw the outlines of his country project. Meeting in a national council with some 500 activists in Drummondville, the Parti Québécois will study a series of proposals relating mainly to housing.
Gabriel Attal had a smile on his lips Thursday evening, while, behind his desk in the Salon bleu, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon finished his speech on the occasion of the 21st alternating meeting of Quebec and French heads of government.
“Knowing, ultimately, that everything depends on the will of the people, may I raise the possibility that, in the not-so-distant future, you will be the one who first deems it legitimate to declare that France will support Quebec in its choices and who, then, who knows, when Quebecers have said yes, will finally be able to declare: long live free Quebec! » the PQ elected official had just said to him, in a nod to the words spoken 57 years earlier by General de Gaulle in Montreal.
The French Prime Minister is not there yet. At a press conference on Friday, the day after a speech in which he praised the “close ties” of the Fifth Republic and the Quebec state on the sharing of “values” such as secularism and the protection of the French language, he refused to carry out any interference in affairs affecting Quebec, including the debate on independence.
“We must obviously respect Quebec in its capacity to lead political debates and internal democratic debates,” argued Mr. Attal during a press conference held a stone’s throw from parliament. “I do not want, through a statement, to give the impression that I am taking sides in a debate that is taking place here, in Quebec political life. »
In his speech at the Salon Bleu, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon still saw fit to recall that “two [French] presidents, Giscard d'Estaing and Chirac, at the dawn of our referendums, [had] used a formula that is both clever and fraternal: France, they said, will support Quebec in its choices.”
“You still have a little time, Mr. Prime Minister, before considering taking this step again, but this pragmatic fraternity is an essential element in our balance of power here and in the rest of the world”, launched the PQ leader, staring at the young representative of the Macron government.
“Third cycle”
Within the PQ staff, we see Thursday, during which “PSPP” and the French Prime Minister also had the opportunity to discuss privately, as a victory. “As a party that supports independence, we wanted to make it understand that there was potentially a change of cycle, therefore a third cycle which would open in the coming years,” confided to Duty a source close to the PQ leader.
This is also what Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon will try to make PQ activists realize in a speech planned for Sunday, this source told us. “There is the possibility that we will have, in the not so distant future, a third referendum, whereas this was impossible before. »
The PQ may be prancing around in the polls, but it still has two and a half years before the next election.
Until then, his leader has disseminated before him a series of announcements that he wishes to brandish in 2026 to convince voters to follow him in his plan for access to sovereignty: after the budget of the year one tabled Last fall, its immigration plan will come later this year — it will include, among other things, revised acceptance thresholds. Then, in 2025, the “blue book”, inside which PQ activists must include the main details of their country project, currency and defense, in particular.
At the end of the week, they will focus on the housing issue. The members present will have the opportunity to express their opinions on around fifty proposals in order to curb the current crisis. “We are committed to implementing bold policies to respond to this crisis,” writes the president of the PQ political committee, Camille Pellerin-Forget, in a document provided to activists.
The PQ could therefore choose this weekend to include in its platform for 2026 the commitment to “ban Airbnb-type rentals in cities where the vacancy rate is less than 3%, excluding areas “, to “establish a public, universal and obligatory rent register” or even to “finance the construction over 5 years of a minimum of 45,000 off-market housing units, including 10,000 for students”.< /p>
Less than two months after the adoption of Bill 31 on housing by Minister France-Élaine Duranceau, the PQ is evaluating several ideas aimed at canceling its effects.
The weekend's package of proposals contains, for example, a measure aimed at eliminating the provisions of the law restricting the use of the transfer of lease, while “reinforcing the legal recourses of owners against transfers made to profit-making purposes.” Another proposal aims to abolish “clause F”, this clause which, when checked, obliges the tenant to accept a rent increase.
“Françoise David Law”
Two weeks after deploring the use of the term “Françoise David law” to qualify a proposal for Quebec solidarity to protect vulnerable seniors, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon will also vote on a proposal aimed at “extending the protection against evictions for seniors aged 65 and over whose income is below the income limit determining core need.”
Québec solidaire first had this idea, by tabling a bill in February 2023, which also planned to lower the age of admission to 65 years. This week, the Coalition Avenir Québec government said it was “open” to studying the legislative text.
Questioned Tuesday about his intentions regarding the QS bill, which he had accused of wallowing in “media moments,” “PSPP” maintained that he would support it. “I made a commitment that if there was a glimmer of hope to protect seniors at the eviction level, I would [give] everything I have. I'm going to do it this week. »
The PQ National Council begins Saturday morning and ends early Sunday afternoon.