I Take Pride in the ‘My Step’ Faction, Prime Minister

I take pride in the ‘My Step’ faction. This was stated today, April 6, by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan while responding to citizens' questions, addressing the observation that many members of the ruling majority in the National Assembly are seen as pointless talkers who do nothing, leaving people disappointed. One citizen asked, “Perhaps you should send some of them home and involve new individuals in your team?”

In response, Nikol Pashinyan said, “Parliament is basically a place for speaking. This is an important institution in terms of democracy, and the parliament is where political forces should exchange ideas and engage in debate. In this sense, speaking and expressing oneself is the primary function conducted in the National Assembly. When we go to parliament, we exchange ideas.”

He urged not to underestimate the value of speech. “Another matter is that each of us should reflect on the weight of our words. Regarding the majority in the National Assembly, the best assessment of both the parliament and our faction has been given in neighboring Azerbaijan. After the early parliamentary elections in our country, it was decided in Azerbaijan to hold early parliamentary elections as well. The official justification for this is that Azerbaijan needs a more youthful parliament that corresponds better to modern conditions. What conditions have changed in the world from Azerbaijan's perspective? Essentially, over the past 1.5 years, the only change in the world has been that early parliamentary elections were held in Armenia, resulting in a younger parliament with many young members capable of seriously representing Armenia and Armenian democracy on international platforms.”

The Prime Minister noted that the ‘My Step’ faction operates quite effectively, as reflected by the statistics. “The parliamentary monitoring program has summarized the activity of the National Assembly's third session, indicating that 30 percent of the accepted laws were authored by members, while 70 percent were initiated by the government. This is the highest rate in the last 10 years. That is to say, the activity of the members has never been more effective. This parliament significantly surpasses at least the previous few parliaments in quality. Of course, the faction was formed in the context of known events, the most important task of which is to function as a team based on a coherent ideological framework, and in this regard, there remains significant work to be done. I hope we can fully accomplish this together. Up until this point, that task has been resolved quite effectively.

I can say that the last political discussion that took place, regarding the Constitutional referendum issue, made me proud of the ‘My Step’ faction because there was a very high-level political discussion. Certainly, in subsequent discussions as well, the ‘My Step’ faction demonstrated very high-level performance. I take pride in that,” emphasized Pashinyan.