Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and 13 members of his cabinet took the oath of office on Wednesday at a ceremony led by President Armen Sarkissian.
Pashinian, Deputy Prime Ministers Tigran Avinian and Mher Grigorian and 11 ministers were sworn in at the presidential palace in Yerevan about two months after the ruling My Step bloc’s victory in Armenia’s snap parliamentary elections.
Only one government member, Labor and Social Affairs Minister Zaruhi Batoyan, did not hold a ministerial post in the previous cabinet which had three vice-premiers and 17 ministers.
The reappointed Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan, Finance Minister Atom Janjughazian and Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian are technocrats not affiliated with any party or bloc. The cabinet members who have kept their jobs also include senior My Step figures such as Education Minister Arayik Harutiunian and Local Government Minister Suren Papikian.
Pashinian is widely expected to abolish the posts of minister of agriculture, energy, culture, Diaspora, and sports and youth affairs as part of his plans to downsize the government. Their current -- and presumably outgoing holders -- have not been reappointed.
However, the precise structure of the new government remains unknown. Pashinian has still not submitted a relevant bill to the Armenian parliament.
Speaking after the ceremony, Pashinian made clear that Armenia’s police, National Security Service (NSS) and tax and customs services will remain directly accountable to the prime minister, rather than his cabinet or the parliament.
“State bodies must definitely be under a parliamentary oversight, but it doesn’t mean that they all must be turned into ministries,” he told reporters. He claimed that the police and the NSS could become “partisan” if they are turned into ministries.
These agencies were directly controlled by Armenia’s presidents under the previous, presidential system of government. Former President Serzh Sarkisian made sure that they will be subordinate to the prime minister when he enacted controversial constitutional changes that turned Armenia into a parliamentary republic.
Sarkisian planned to stay in power as prime minister after serving out his second presidential term in April 2018. Pashinian, Edmon Marukian and other leaders of the now defunct Yelk alliance accused him of introducing a “super prime-ministerial” system of government with the aim of maintaining a tight grip on power.
Marukian, who now leads the opposition Bright Armenia Party (LHK), again demanded earlier in January that the police, the NSS and the State Revenue Committee (SRC) be turned into ministries. “They must be placed under a parliamentary oversight,” he said.
Pashinian insisted that he is committed to eventually curtailing his sweeping executive powers inherited from the country’s former leaders. “People want that to happen overnight,” he said. “That can be done overnight as it could leave the whole government paralyzed and create anarchy in the country.”
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