Susanna Petrosyan, Yerevan. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
On April 19 President Serzh Sargsyan signed a decree to reappoint Tigran Sarkisyan to the post of prime minister. The new government should be announced after the elections to the Yerevan City Council on May 5.
Despite the backlash against Sargsyan from some circles of the Republican Party of Armenia and the generally ambiguous attitude to the figure within the ruling elite, the government, as usual, has responded to the decision by the President unanimously. Member of the Board of the Republican Party, Deputy Speaker Eduard Sharmazanov stated that "the current government is imperfect", but "Sarkisyan was able to fulfill the order of the President to provide the 7 percent economic growth."
However, the reassignment of Sarkisyan has caused public dissatisfaction and opposition, expressing the sentiments of the majority of citizens who, because of the severe socio-economic status, are dissatisfied with the government and feel the need to effect change in the country. For instance, the representative of the "Dashnaktsutiun" opposition party Hrant Markarian said: "I think this is an important signal; our party has twice expressed disbelief to the prime minister. The presidential election denounced the people's discontent with the socio-economic status. In not making any conclusions, the President made a big mistake.
The secretary of the parliamentary faction of "Prosperous Armenia" Naira Zohrabyan pointed to a large outflow of population from the country and the high threshold of poverty: "Our estimates remain the same: the current government led by the Prime Minister failed to address the serious social and economic problems the country faces."
The opposition believes that Sargsyan failed most of the points of the government's program for 2008-2012, including both GDP and promises to reduce poverty and unemployment. According to the opposition, there is regression in all areas, and the growth of 7.2% was obtained by fraud and is a bluff.
The prime minister does not agree with the negative assessments of the opposition and does not consider the activity of the Cabinet to be a failure: "Sure, there were a lot of omissions and errors over the years; the one who does nothing does not make mistakes. Naturally we feel guilty for these mistakes like all normal people. "
Meanwhile, according to the Director of the Caucasus Institute, Alexander Iskandaryan, reappointing the Prime Minister is quite logical: "Both the elections of local authorities and parliamentary and presidential elections showed that there is no serious opposition in Armenia. The opposition today is in ruins, and a major force that can pose a threat to the Republicans does not exist. Accordingly, the Republican Party has no rival. And if they do not exist and there is no one that can force them to change the team, the authorities do not see any special reason for this."
However, the question of reappointing Sarkisyan should be considered not only in the political sphere, but also in terms of his work since the early days, that is, from April 2008. Even the official figures are not in favor of the government. During this time, external debt increased more than 2.5 times, which in 2008 amounted to 1.4 billion, and today is close to $4 billion. In spite of the fact that the government declared there was economic growth in the country, migration outflow is not reduced, and the number of poor, even according to official statistics, has increased; the minimum wage is $85. At the peak of the global economic crisis, Armenia was the first one in terms of external financial support per capita, but in 2009 in Armenia there was an unprecedented economic decline of 14%. The Armenian Prime Minister choked small and medium-sized businesses in favor of monopolies. According to the World Bank, about 40% of the economy is in the shadows, the rise in prices is continuing, including for staple foods, and investment in the Armenian economy has decreased. It turns out that the ruling Republican Party and its leader, President Serzh Sargsyan, ignored this information.
"The Armenian government and Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan were constantly criticized by society, and their reappointments show that criticism of the authorities does not mean anything," political analyst Armen Badalyan said. Local observers agree that the appointment of Sarkisyan was expected. This confidence comes from Serzh Sargsyan's statement that he "now sees no reason to implement major changes." In addition, Sarkisyan is acceptable to the international financial institutions. Finally, Sarkisyan does not pose any threat to the president himself, as opposed to, for example, Robert Kocharian, whose appointment as prime minister was discussed since the beginning of the first term of President Sargsyan.
Reassigning Tigran Sargsyan in the presence of more than a third of the poor, the continuing migration outflow, prices unreasonably high in relation to incomes, rising debt and the ongoing rule of the monopolies is likely to mean that there will not be any significant adjustments made in the composition of the government and its activities. Social and economic policies are on the backburner, and the authorities give priority to the political aspect.
