It seems that the new government of Armenia is ready to take measures to improve dire socio-economic situation - the prices for gasoline were reduced, they promise to cut the amount of money allocated to officials. Although all key decisions will be made by President Serzh Sargsyan, as political consultant Karen Kocharyan says, the society has a very cautious optimism regarding the government, which arose in the conditions of total distrust. "However, if concrete steps won't be made, this optimism may disappear quickly," he believes. Socio-economic sphere is not the only sphere that new Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan plans to change.
Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan
July events in Yerevan, associated with the activities of Daredevils of Sassoun armed group, not only rocked the Armenian society, but also caused serious concern of the representatives of a large (by Armenian standarts) business. It is no coincidence that the new government is called the government of big business managers, and even the government of millionaires. Some ministers, like Transport Minister Vahan Martirosyan and Health Minister Levon Altunyan, are not hiding the fact that they are millionaires. And the Prime Minister himself, according to media reports, has at least 3.5 million dollars.
Transport Minister Vahan Martirosyan
Considering difficult socio-economic and potentially explosive political situation, the new government must bring real changes, not imitation of them. According to some observers, Sargsyan gave the Prime Minister a carte blanche to carry out major personnel changes. He already removed many notorious high-ranking officials from power - the governor of Syunik region Surik Khachatryan, Transport Minister Gagik Beglaryan, Finance Minister Gagik Khachatryan and other odious figures, which are negatively viewed in society.
Analysts believe that these dismissals won't change the system of government and the essence of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), which, despite the existence of ideology, is basically a party of careerists and officials. But the very fact of cleansings in the political field from controversial figures has a positive meaning for the political system and the government system. According to experts, a series of dismissals, including the resignation of Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan, will be continued at the upcoming convention of the Republican Party, which will be held on November 26th. This view is confirmed by the statement of Vice-Speaker of the parliament, RPA's press secretary Eduard Sharmazanov: "It will be another meeting, but a very important for the Republican Party. There is a chance that some changes in the leadership will be made." According to some reports, we can expect dismissal of Hovik Abrahamyan and Gagik Beglaryan from the governing body of the RPA.
We'll see from the government program whether the new government wants to radically change the system of government and economic model. Experts already predict that the program will be very blurry.
Health Minister Levon Altunyan
There are also certain priority tasks and it is unclear how they will be resolved. First of all it is the national debt, which continues to grow. Next year it will reach 6 billion dollars, and this figure is very dangerous, especially since the growth trend still exists.
It is obvious that the government of millionaires avoids shocks and wants to regulate existing problems, but major changes are needed. Meanwhile, the existing system of government and economic model are stronger the government's efforts. All of its steps have limited nature and can't break this system, which slows the development of the country. The fight against corruption, the dominance of monopolies, the reduction of shadow business and other urgent problems that must be addressed by the government have political nature, not administrative. In any case, many things will become clear after the meeting of the ruling party.
