The Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) didn’t join the coalition government, as opposed to the predictions of people, including also me, pessimistic about this issue. Why pessimistic? Because regardless of why that party didn’t take that step and what it is going to do in
the future, the PAP’s not fully merging with the government is useful for the state, for the most important state institution, the National Assembly. It doesn’t matter who is good and who is bad – all political forces represented in the parliament have their serious demerits. It is important that there may be competition, in this case, on bills, ways of solving state issues. Yes, the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) and the Rule of Law Party (RLP) can pass any law in this situation too, but a/ it is one thing to pass it with 66 yeas and it is a different thing to pass it with 100 or more than 100 yeas, b/ the ruling coalition will not have the ability to avoid detailed discussion on contentious bills, c/ in order to have 66 yeas, it will be necessary that all pro-government MPs are present, which will be technically very difficult to do, because a part of the Republican MPs (the majoritarian one, in particular) prefer to spend their time in other places and not in the parliament. Therefore, I am very happy that I was wrong and now one can assert that as a result of this election a National Assembly is formed that is a bit like a legislative body.
Such an attitude of the PAP will also make the work of the parliament more efficient. The small opposition is compelled to use the parliamentary floor for street populism. The representatives of the governmental wing, let’s say Artashes Geghamyan or Hayk Babukhanyan, will oppose like “and when you in 1993….” During that fruitless debate the PAP MPs would have been compelled to keep silent, if they had been in the coalition. Now they, I hope, will direct the huge energy of their colleagues in a constructive direction, paying attention to the bills, mechanisms, numbers and percentages.
Let me repeat, it doesn’t matter whether the opinions of the PAP are right or wrong. The important thing is that those may be alternative at least to a certain extent, which is important for our future development. Therefore, everybody – also the Republicans who will not be able to work with a “light schedule” in the field of economy, in particular, anymore – gains from that move of the PAP. At the end of the day, it is also in the interest of the president who will be able to make right decisions hearing different opinions from the parliamentary floor.
Read also
I don’t know how much the Cabinet, which presents its four-year bad work as good, will gain. However, perhaps they may also understand something.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
