A-Infos (en) France, Alternative libertaire #221 - Quebec: Victory for elected (fr) [machine translation]

After the social movement of "Spring Maple", the political situation has changed in Quebec 
with the victory of the Parti Québécois. Victory through elections, can not satisfy those 
who fought. ---- There is still one month, the Quebec social situation seemed hopeless. 
Student associations strike declined, Students returned to the classroom, the University 
of Montreal was invaded by riot police gallows. On the political side, the Quebec election 
came in with a flush-ground debate and where speech on the importance of voting took 
precedence over everything else. The Students no longer had control of the movement for 
which they fought and they for months, and the outcome of the conflict depended on the 
outcome of elections. So a month ago, the hearts were not really in the party.

A slap to the Liberals

And then on September 4 in the evening, the Quebec Liberal Party was defeated prime 
minister since 2003, Jean Charest, fell. Pauline Marois, head of the Parti Québécois (PQ), 
became Prime Minister of the Province, at the head of a minority government [ 1 ]. As 
promised during the election campaign, it cancels rising tuition and Law 78 [ 2 ]. The few 
concessions Charest government, improvements to the system of loans and grants is 
maintained. According to one of claims last winter, a peak of Education will be held in 
the coming months.

As such, it is fair to say that the student strike of 2012 is victorious on all fronts: 
the increase is canceled and Quebec got rid of one of the most corrupt governments in 
history. That said, should not the arrival of the PQ in power causes drowsiness and return 
the status quo. History has shown us, the PQ is just as capable of the Liberal Party 
retrograde policies and antisocial.

Social movements must remain on their guard and not be fooled by the new facade. Pauline 
Marois also announced that if she canceled the planned increase in the previous 
government, his party would defend indexing tuition inflation. Education is the 
government's eyes a commodity whose price increases will price, as well as that of Ipod 
and dry food for cats. In short, the victory of the student movement is only temporary, 
and mobilization will likely resume in the coming years.

Struggles that politicized without illusion

That said, one of the great victories of the movement "Maple" is having fired the 
political debate to the left, and especially the PQ, even a little. The PQ has no clear 
ideological line (except independence), its direction depends on the internal balance of 
power. Years if the party had heavy liberal tendencies and was largely indistinguishable 
Liberal social movements and struggles of recent years (environmentalists against shale 
gas, access to health care) favored orientation debate Quebec politics on a left-right 
axis. Especially that the Liberal Party has also promoted the polarization of the debate, 
allowing the PQ itself as alternative "progressive" government antisocial.

In short, we should not deceive ourselves if the PQ is so, it is due to the pressure put 
by the social movement that began last winter. Without this, it is certain that such 
measures have not been implemented. So much the better, but we must be on our guard and 
maintain the pressure. Especially the attitude of the police under the PQ will not change: 
September 22, during a demonstration in favor of free education, repression is done again 
with batons and gas. Like what, the more things change, the more they stay the same ...

Clémence (Quebec)

[ 1 ] In Quebec, the elections run by a uninominal a ride. So that four candidates, if the 
first or the first was only 22%, that is he or she is elected. The party that has the most 
MPs forms the government, but it may not have the majority of the room: it thus forms a 
minority government.

[ 2 ] See Libertarian Alternative No. 218 of May 2012
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