Susanna Petrosyan, Yerevan. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
The Armenian parliament adopted the program of the new government for 2013-2017 – 76 votes “for” and 41 votes “against.”
According to Premier Tigran Sarkisyan, the document is aimed at overcoming three main problems – unemployment, emigration, and poverty. The program demands economic growth, an increase in the minimum wage, the reduction of poverty by 8-10%, the creation of 100,000 new jobs, and a growth in pensions. “This is a program of change, and we are ready to be responsible for it,’ Sarkisyan emphasized.
However, more than 50 opposition MPs criticized the government, stating that its strategy was losing, and the program was unrealistic. The fact is that the government remained the same, except for small changes. As the result of the government activity in 5 years, the poverty level grew from 23% in 2008 to 36% today; unemployment and migration rates grew as well. In 5 years more than 200 thousand people left Armenia. The MPs accused the government of absence of the budget growth, which formally increased from 700 billion drams to 1 trillion drams; however, considering the tax administrating and the growth of prices, it appears there is no budget growth.
“In the first quarter of the year 37,000 people left Armenia; the GDP growth was 6% in five years, while the average world index is 13%. Apparently the tough socio-economic situation is caused by an ineffective management. The criminal oligarchic system prevents any possibility of development of our country which needs drastic qualitative changes. The current government is not able to do it,” Stepan Demirchyan, the representative of the opposition fraction Armenian National Congress, said.
The MP from the opposition fraction Dashnaktsutyun Artsvik Minasyan cited the report of the Audit Chamber on the governmental activity in 2011 and noted that budget resources were wasted in all directions. He called the government robbers.
The parliamentary majority in the name of the Republican Party of Armenia and “The Rule of Law” responded by silence to the opposition’s accusations of robbery, cheating with official statistics, encouragement of the middle class migration, and absence of the budget and GDP growth. Nobody of the parliamentary majority and members of the government presented an argument in favor of the governmental activity.
Representatives of the authorities appeared not to be ready for an open political discussion. Except for Premier and the Minister of Energy Armen Movsisyan, the members of the Cabinet reacted at the criticism very emotionally.
However, the government was not punished for the failure of its own program. The power defeated the opposition and the society once again. At the same time, this was the first time in 15 years a governmental program has been criticized in such a harsh manner.
