Yesterday the parliament held a special session, during which was approved, within a couple of minutes, the interim program of the government developed by Prime Minister Serge Sargsyan. The session was attended by the ULP party, which failed to be elected in the recent elections, but was boycotted by NU party, which wasn’t elected either, and LS party, which was elected.
The opposition powers were represented in the parliament only by Shavarsh Kocharyan, and some time later by member of “Justice” bloc Aram G. Sargsyan. Before the latter arrived, the deputies thought that “Justice” was boycotting too. The session was organized only for the purpose of doing the requirement of the Constitution, according to which within 20 days the prime minister shall develop a new program for approval in the parliament. Accordingly, as yesterday everything was done to “perform” the due process, nothing was organized according to the due procedures. According to the mentioned procedures, the prime minister had to present the new program, following which there had to be a Q/A session, and as well the factions had to air their opinions on that draft. Notwithstanding, they didn’t present any programs; there were neither any questions nor speeches.
However, Gurgen Arsenyan used his opportunity for a speech, but he didn’t discuss the program and spoke about the fact that he had to leave Parliament. The most interesting thing is that during Arsenyan’s speech Grigor Ghonjeyan, who is also a member of ULP, walked out in protest. They say he was impressed by the sincere speech of their leader, and thus being overcome emotionally he had to leave the hall. “I wish the government to be successful in its programs and want to remind them about the saying of a clever man, which is that Armenia or any other country is the people of that country. I wish the government could work in favor of the people and understand that the final goal of their existence is the people and that they should work in favor of people. I also wish the government could help increase the trust between the people and the government. I wish the political parties and colleagues that will work in the new parliament after the elections of May 12 be successful and work in favor of the Republic of Armenia, where we all are living,” said Arsenyan in his final speech in the parliament, which didn’t impress anyone besides Ghonjeyan.
Yesterday the governmental program was approved in the parliament by 87 votes for, 0 – against, and 0 – abstained. NA speaker Tigran Torosyan said that the program of the government that was re-approved yesterday was a very good one, since he thought that due to it the economic grow rate consists of two digits, the export capacities have grown and also the living conditions of people have been significantly improved. “Certainly, it is not the best version that we have been dreaming of, but what the government presented and what we approved last time was effectively realized,” he said.
After the session journalists asked Prime Minister Serge Sargsyan whether the ARP, which has the majority of seats in the parliament, intends to take the role of the coalition solely, to which he answered that it was not yet time to discuss that issue. As for whether he wants that or not he said, “I don’t change my mind so often. One month ago I said that the more parties are involved in the government, the more people will trust the government.” In answer to a question about supposed changes in the government, the prime minister said, “Who said that there will not be any changes? There will be many changes.” He will not replace the ministers of foreign affairs, national security and some other ministries, since he says it is only President Kocharyan’s place to do this. Mr. Sargsyan also does not exclude the possibility of collaborating with parties that could not reach the necessary limit to be elected in the parliament. “Yes, we are ready to collaborate with any political party, any person, that is capable,” said Sargsyan. Certainly, it is clear that the prime minister does not mean the opposition parties, but ULP, whose leader “praised” the government in his last speech in the parliament instead of accusing it of violations. As for the opposition’s boycott, Serge Sargsyan is not concerned about it. “It is up to them. Everyone is free in making decisions,” said Sargsyan. He answered another question about what he thought about the fact that NU and some other opposition parties had been left out of the parliament saying, “It is yet very difficult to evaluate the situation, but the parliament is not very big and there are only 131 places there, and these results are the consequence of our competition. In a word, I can’t evaluate it.”
He also spoke about the recent Russian media coverage stating that the new parliament is pro-Russian. “I have numerously said that the ARP and I are a pro-Armenian political power, but not a power advocating Russia, NATO or the West. We have always tried to implement programs aimed at providing national security, improving living conditions, and in such circumstances we were interested in those interests, as much they complied with our own national interests,” said the prime minister. Answering a question whether he was satisfied with the outcome of the parliamentary elections or not Mr. Sargsyan said, “I have said many times that if we receive 25% or more, we will consider that we have worked well. We have always been modest in our ambitions, thus I think that we worked well. Certainly, none of us has a headache, none of us thinks that there haven’t been any shortcomings, and generally I think that there isn’t any country where the electoral system has developed so much that there isn’t any place for further development. There are always people that are not satisfied. There will not be anyone complaining if all the participants of elections win or all citizens of the country are100% satisfied with their lives. As it is impossible, there are always people who are complaining. We are satisfied with the outcome of the elections. We have an important goal, which is to organize elections so well that they will enable our citizens and the Europeans to say that our elections fully comply with European standards.”
P.S. Yesterday the deputies were separately discussing the issue of whether the ARP would make a coalition, and if yes, which powers they will prefer. There were different views, included those spoken by ARP member deputies. However, most of them think that the ARP will make a coalition with the “Prosperous Armenia” party. As for the NA speaker’s position, our sources of information say that it will be re-assigned to the ARP, and definitely the existing speaker, Tigran Torosyan, will continue working in that position in the future too.