This week begins the 43rd legislature of the National Assembly of Quebec. However, the parliamentary work in this Canadian province began with 122 of the 125 deputies elected during the elections of October 3, since the three deputies of the Parti du Québec were not present. The reason is that they refused to take the oath of King Charles III of England, the head of state in Canada. It is an unavoidable requirement — at least until today — to occupy a seat. The deputies of the main independence group propose various solutions to be accepted in the legislative body.

Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, leader of the party, had expressed during the election campaign that he would not respect the oath, considering it “as an archaic practice”, stressing that “we cannot serve two masters” and that “c is a reminder of colonial rule. After the October 3 election, St-Pierre Plamondon and two other Parti Québécois candidates won a parliamentary seat; This is the worst result in the history of the group. On the 23rd of the same month, the three deputies swore allegiance to the Quebec people alone, despite the warnings issued at the time by the President of the National Assembly. Canadian parliamentarians, both federal and provincial, must take the oath before the Head of State, in accordance with the provisions of the country’s Constitution.

François Legault, Premier of Quebec, indicated on these dates that his party – the Coalition Futuro de Québec, with a parliamentary majority – is in favor of a modification so that the said oath is optional, but he underlined that for this it is necessary the deputies to occupy a seat and therefore vote on it. The other political forces spoke in the same direction. Indeed, the 11 deputies of Québec Solidaire (a left-wing group, also with separatist accents) had taken the same oath in the same way only before the people of Québec, but subsequently backed down in order to create the conditions to address a legislative body reform on the requirement.

Justin Trudeau, Canadian Prime Minister, said on October 19: “The National Assembly of Quebec has the right to decide how it wants to organize its oaths. However, he said changing his country’s ties to the British crown was not part of the discussion. A survey by the firm Léger, carried out a few weeks ago, revealed that two out of three Quebecers believe that deputies should exercise their functions, whether or not they want to take the oath to the monarch.

On Tuesday, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon declared at a press conference that the presidency of the National Assembly of Quebec “is sovereign in its internal management”, it can therefore order the deputies of the Parti québécois to enter the gallery, even if they don’t have the right to vote. The party leader also proposed retroactive legislation. St-Pierre Plamondon stressed that the requirement is “an unacceptable humiliation”. The Quebec Solidario bench has already announced that it will present a bill this Thursday to make the oath to King Carlos III optional. Meanwhile, the seats of the three members of the party founded by René Lévesque in 1968 remain empty.

Follow all the international news on Facebook And Twitteror in our weekly newsletter.