Elections against a backdrop of crisis: Jean Charest politicking on the backs of students (CNW Telbec)

MONTREAL, 13 June 2012 /CNW Telbec

Original French Text: http://www.newswire.ca/fr/story/992415/elections-sur-fond-de-crise-jean-charest-fait-de-la-petite-politique-sur-le-dos-des-etudiants

With the Quebec Liberal Party’s electoral strategy revealed publicly today, the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ) is astounded to learn that the Liberals have been using the deterioration of the social climate to benefit their political party all along: “All this time, when we were trying to negotiate an end to the crisis in good faith, the Premier was basing his next electoral campaign on the failure of these discussions. What I would like to say to Mr. Charest is that this is outrageous and totally unworthy of a head of state!” decried an angry Martine Desjardins, president of the FEUQ.

For the Fédération, while the government’s attitude regarding tuition hikes and its management of the crisis had already proven a disgrace, this incompetence could only be attributed to exceptional ideological narrow-mindedness. However, in light of recent Liberal documents that have surfaced, it would appear that the Premier’s strategy was to maintain tensions and encourage the spread of chaos all along. “While we, the students, were working hard to find compromises and win-win solutions at no cost to taxpayers, Jean Charest was preparing his next masquerade to aggravate the social climate and capitalize on the chaos. He never wanted to resolve the crisis, but only to divide and conquer, at any cost,” added the president of the FEUQ.

According to the FEUQ, the contradiction between the government’s politicking on the backs of Quebec’s youth and society, and its rhetoric about violence and intimidation, borders on political schizophrenia. “Though the government has endlessly repeated that it didn’t want to hold elections in the midst of the student crisis, that this would be irresponsible, grotesque even, it was in the process of developing a rigorous plan to do just that. How can we have any confidence in this government? On top of corruption and collusion, there’s now brazen lying and burdening an entire population with a crisis for personal political gain,” concluded Ms. Desjardins.

Translated from the original French by Translating the printemps érable.

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