Quebec’s new separatist government cannot conceive of holding a fresh referendum on independence for the French-speaking Canadian province any time soon, Premier Pauline Marois told AFP on Tuesday.
On a visit to Paris after her Parti Quebecois returned to power in September for the first time in nine years, Marois said she had been encouraged by meetings with top officials in the French capital.
But she made it clear that a new vote on independence for Quebec — which has twice rejected splitting from the rest of Canada in referendums in 1980 and 1995 — is not in the cards.
“I don’t believe we can imagine this in the short term,” Marois said when asked about the possibility of a new referendum.
“First of all, we are a minority government…. And also we have work to do with the people of Quebec, because there are some who are not yet completely convinced that this is the solution for our future.”
The Parti Quebecois, the standard-bearer of the province’s independence movement, won control of Quebec’s National Assembly last month, defeating the federalist Liberals who had ruled since 2003 and the middle-ground Coalition Avenir Quebec, which has called for a moratorium on constitutional debate.
But the party failed to win a majority and Marois said it would struggle to get a referendum question approved in parliament.
With recent polls showing support for independence at a historic low of 33 percent, Marois admitted the separatists needed to work to win back the level of backing that saw them nearly win the 1995 referendum.
“It is the responsibility of all sovereigntists… to work together to explain, to convince,” she said.
“They say the sovereigntist movement is no longer fashionable, it is less relevant…. But it is as relevant today, as necessary today, as it was 40 years ago.”
Marois scored a victory during her three-day visit to Paris when President Francois Hollande said Monday that France would return to its policy of “non-interference, non-indifference” on the question of Quebec independence.
First laid out in 1977, the “ni, ni” policy — as it is known in French — makes France officially neutral on the question but indicates support to Quebeckers should they choose to separate from the rest of Canada.
The formula has allowed France to continue what many see as its subtle support for Quebec independence — embodied in ex-president Charles de Gaulle’s 1967 “Long Live a Free Quebec!” speech in Montreal — without sparking a diplomatic row with Ottawa.
Ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy, defeated by the Socialist Hollande for the presidency in May, broke with the policy and angered Quebec separatists with attacks on the movement, sneering at what he called “sectarianism” and “self-confinement”.
“I am very satisfied with the statements of Mr. Hollande, who indicated to me that he is in favour of continuity and solidarity,” Marois said.
“The day we make our choice, what we precisely want is that there is no indifference towards us, that there is kindness, but not any interference either — and this is simply what Mr. Hollande reiterated.”
In the meantime Marois said her government would work to win more powers and control from the federal government in Ottawa. “We aren’t going to stand there with our arms crossed and do nothing,” she said.
She said Quebec’s separatists were in contact with other such movements in Scotland and the Spanish region of Catalonia and were watching closely as others push for independence.
“I find what is happening interesting, people who are being made to ask questions after facing economic difficulties,” Marois said.
Quebec separatists cannot see independence vote soon
