MONTREAL — Quebec finance minister Raymond Bachand has rejected mediation as a means to end the ongoing student conflict, stating on Monday that he believed the only solution was a general election in the fall.
The candid revelation came in an interview with French newspaper Le Monde, which has dedicated half of its latest world politics section to the Quebec Spring.
"The only possible exit for this crisis is through the holding of an election […] we are in a pre-election campaign for a vote very likely to be held this autumn," the minister told the French newspaper.
One of the most outspoken and forceful ministers on the ongoing social conflict in Quebec—Bachand is also the minister responsible for protest-hit Montreal—the minister's comments are a surprise. Premier Jean Charest's government has so far refused to speculate about possible elections and has maintained that the door is open to negotiations.
"The students aren't willing to negotiate. We will start a discussion when they are willing to accept the principle that fees are going to increase. Of the three student federations, one of them, the CLASSE, demands a freeze and the two others won't budge," said Bachand.
"Two-thirds of the electorate supports the government's position," Bachand continued, rejecting the idea that his budget would be dictated by mediators.
A proponent of syndicalism when he was a professor at HEC, Bachand defended the government's reaction in the form of Bil 78—the emergency legislation received extremely critical press in France—and implied that the student groups could be compared to "radicals, Marxists and communists."
--with files from The Canadian Press.
