Serzh Sargsyan, the incumbent president and a candidate for president made a confession, so to speak, in the section of his recently published election program entitled “Socially Protected Families.” Probably meaning the five years of his presidency, Serzh Sargsyan came to a conclusion that the state policy of overcoming poverty had not been that right. “Mere social benefits cannot solve this problem; we should eliminate the underlying reasons of poverty.” As for which those problems are, the election program doesn’t say anything. If in 2008 candidate for president Serzh Sargsyan would promise voters in his election program to take the problems of citizens who had found themselves in a very hard condition under the state’s protection, now Mr. Sargsyan thinks in his 2013 election program: “Every family should be able to make decent living from work.”
As for socially unprotected families, Serzh Sargsyan doesn’t offer any concrete solution; he just says that these families “should feel the state’s real support and help.” As opposed to the previous program, there is a new point in the social section of the new program; Serzh Sargsyan wants to introduce a complex system of social services in our country, in order that the number of beneficiaries doesn’t rise. The incumbent president is convinced that only then can one “reconsider the nature of social work and social worker’s place and role in social relations.” As the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) stated in its election program, candidate for president Serz Sargsyan also promises emergency heart surgery for all citizens of the Republic of Armenia. However, Mr. Sargsyan doesn’t go into detail like the RPA whether the surgery will be free of charge or he would make only a part of the payment. There are a lot of promises in this program with regard to the disabled; candidate Serzh Sargsyan thinks this time that at least, minimum conditions should be created to make it possible for the disabled to integrate into society.
No particular term is mentioned with regard to solving the apartment issues of dead servicemen’s families either. According to S. Sargsyan, they will solve those families’ problem “within a few years.”
Lusine BUDAGHYAN
