Former student leader Martine Desjardins runs for the Parti Quebecois

MONTREAL – Former student leader Martine Desjardins is running for the Parti Quebecois in the Groulx riding just north of Montreal.

“After several years of activism, the time has come for me to make the leap to politics with the PQ,” Desjardins tweeted on Friday.

The announcement comes two weeks after Desjardins said she was considering an invitation to run.

With Leo Bureau-Blouin and Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, Desjardins was one of several prominent students who led the 2012 student protests against the Liberal party’s proposed tuition fee increases.

The daily demonstrations involving hundreds of thousands of protesters, including Premier Pauline Marois, the then-leader of the opposition, contributed to the fall of the Liberal government in the 2012 election.

Desjardins and Premier Marois have had their share of differences in the past.

As president of the Quebec Federation of University Students, Desjardins participated in last year’s summit on higher education.

She noted afterwards that she was disappointed with the resulting limited tuition fee increase.

However, on Friday, Desjardins said that she and the premier have patched up their differences.

Her decision to run with the PQ came as a disappointment to the Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ), one of the more militant student groups in Quebec.

“With her candidacy, Ms. Desjardins gives legitimacy to a party that goes against the interests of the students she claims to defend,” the federation noted in a statement.

Desjardins is not the only former student leader recruited by the Parti Quebecois to come under fire.

Bureau-Blouin also took some heat when he was elected under the PQ banner to represent a Laval riding in the 2012 election.

These young leaders are considered a dynamic driving force to help the party connect with younger voters and to revitalize the province’s sovereigntist movement.

To this end, Desjardins made it very clear on Friday what her political priorities would be.

“I am a separatist and for the defence of our culture, our language and our values.” she noted on Twitter.