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Despite its shaky finances, the Parti Québécois will assume the salary of its new leader, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, who does not plan to seek to be elected in order to sit in the Blue Salon.
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“The party will pay me a salary. It is a decision that is up to the party and has not yet been taken. So it will be up to the party to decide. The party’s authorities will look into it, ”explained the new leader of the Parti Québécois on Wednesday, during his first press briefing at the National Assembly.
The amount that will be paid to him will be decided by the executive of the party, he said.
Elected last Friday at the head of the party, Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon is not a Member of Parliament and does not intend to stand in a by-election to enter the Blue Room and thus be able to face the Prime Minister during question period .
The 43-year-old lawyer says he instead wants to remain extra-parliamentary leader until the 2022 general election in order to work to rebuild the Parti Québécois. He may in particular focus on financing and recruiting candidates.
Despite this, PSPP intends to be very present in Quebec when the National Assembly is in session. “And that’s important because it’s a new step for the Parti Québécois. I spoke of revival, I spoke of rebuilding the party. It is important that the leader be present, side by side with the deputies as much as possible, so as to create synergies and then a revival, ”he explained just before taking part in his first caucus with the nine deputies from the sovereignist formation.
“I intend to assume my leadership,” warns the new leader. “For nine months, we debated, I am now the leader of the Parti Québécois, I will be present here in the National Assembly, but I will get involved in strategic choices, I will be involved in all the reflections on our questions, in relation to our communications in the press briefings, ”he said.
A challenge of cohesion also awaits the new leader while three deputies, out of a total of nine, instead supported their colleague Sylvain Gaudreault in the race. “I personally called all the deputies, everyone was very positive”, assured Paul St-Pierre Plamondon Wednesday morning.
Asked about a first topical issue, Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon remained unclear on his position regarding the download of the COVID Alert application.
The PQ is against it so far, but the position could change shortly.
To explain his reluctance to download it himself, Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon underlined his busy schedule over the past few weeks. “The truth is, I’ve been sleeping for about three hours a night for several days,” he said. That is the truth. So there are things like that. I am managing two moves at the moment, I have two young children, so you have to put in context, there, at the level of emotion, of energy, the last 10 days of the campaign were extremely demanding, and, the next morning, I was up at 5:45 am to give a series of interviews. So put it in context. ”
