The Government is Like an Indebted Villager, says Pashinyan

Armenia is currently in the state of an indebted villager, who has to obtain a loan from one bank to pay off a debt in another one, said Armenian National Congress (HAK) faction MP Nikol Pashinyan during a 2015 state budget discussion in the National Assembly.

“Why am I saying this, because the Armenian government plans to obtain a 114 billion AMD ($274,500,000) loan and pay off a 115 billion debt (277,000,000) in 2015,” said Pashinyan. He noted that the country’s most important financial document does not state the level of poverty in Armenia and what it will become toward the end of the year.

The MP asked why there was no money allocated for border communities, while Yerevan’s finances have increased by 2 billion AMD ($4,816,000).

“That’s because in Yerevan, they can scrape the (streets’) asphalt and put a new layer twice a year, while there is no money in the budget for border communities,” said Pashinyan.

He turned to the statements by the Prosperous Armenia Party faction members, who have said that the current government inherited a heavy burden from the previous one; “I’m sorry, but was it me who sat here passing laws left and right? It wasn’t me; it was Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan.  Of the government’s twenty members, ten have worked for the previous government; the other six have gone to the government from the National Assembly’s majority or other government circles. Now, what inheritance are we talking about? Moreover, during 70% of Tigran Sargsyan’s government’s term, Prosperous Armenia (BHK) was part of the coalition. So our BHK colleagues should think about themselves, and not about Hovik Abrahamyan. I don’t understand, is it possible that in two weeks we say that Serzh Sargsyan inheritied a large burden, and that it was Tigran Sargsyan who tricked him and left the country in such a dire state?” said Nikol Pashinyan.