“Khachatur Kokobelyan was the only deputy of the National Assembly who submitted a draft for Armenia to withdraw the EaEU. We have people on our list with liberal ideas, they have the European vision for Armenia’s development. If people want to see an alternative politics them can vote for our team,” said Stepan Safaryan, a candidate for the parliament nominated by the proportional list of “Free Democrats”, at the “Hayeli” club.
According to him, the political forces participating in the upcoming parliamentary elections are divided into three groups, “The first group which is quite large ranging from the government and ending with those who were a part of the government in different years and cannot offer a different political line other than the line of the government and particularly have nothing to offer to the public.
The second group includes such forces which can offer nothing at all because many have quite conflicting views and approach. I am talking about Seyran Ohanyan-Oskanian and Tsarukyan alliances for they have pretty serious external and internal disagreements in the past. Now, if one of them puts their approaches aside and agrees with the other’s approaches, it is another thing, but nevertheless, they cannot introduce a serious alternative program except saying, what the government has and is doing, we will come and do better.”
The third group involves “Free Democrats”, which according to Mr. Safaryan, offers an alternative program to electorates, “People here have not had any serious program disagreement, neither in terms of liberal values, the country’s foreign course and foreign political priorities, nor in the domestic politics to make the country a country of rights. I am confident that the Free Democrats is the leader of the “third group”.
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In response to the question about the possible consolidation of opposition forces, Mr. Safaryan said it will be possible to respond when the political forces will publish their political programs, “Until summarizing the results of the parliamentary elections, in theory, we can say what possible alliances can be with program platform, and after the elections when it will be clear who have passed to the parliament, in that case, we can discuss who can cooperate with each other.”
