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'He's not a populist, he's popular': Nikol Pashinyan becomes Armenian PM
Exactly a month ago, Nikol Pashinyan was walking from village to village across Armenia in a desperate protest against a power grab by the country’s prime minister, Serzh Sargsyan.
On Tuesday Pashinyan, a fiery political orator who has spent the past decade in street politics, was himself elected as prime minister in a 59-42 vote in parliament, capping weeks of peaceful mass protests.
It has been an unlikely rise to power in the post-Soviet republic of about 3 million. Before April, the ruling Republican party’s stranglehold on Armenian politics had appeared intact, with Sargsyan newly installed as prime minister after term limits forced him to step down as president after 10 years.
But governance changes that in tandem bolstered the prime minister’s office led to accusations that Sargsyan had manipulated the constitution to cling to power. Pashinyan and other activists brought out tens of thousands of people on to the streets for protests that paralysed the capital, Yerevan.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/08/hes-not-a-populist-hes-popular-nikol-pashinyan-becomes-armenian-pm
On Tuesday Pashinyan, a fiery political orator who has spent the past decade in street politics, was himself elected as prime minister in a 59-42 vote in parliament, capping weeks of peaceful mass protests.
It has been an unlikely rise to power in the post-Soviet republic of about 3 million. Before April, the ruling Republican party’s stranglehold on Armenian politics had appeared intact, with Sargsyan newly installed as prime minister after term limits forced him to step down as president after 10 years.
But governance changes that in tandem bolstered the prime minister’s office led to accusations that Sargsyan had manipulated the constitution to cling to power. Pashinyan and other activists brought out tens of thousands of people on to the streets for protests that paralysed the capital, Yerevan.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/08/hes-not-a-populist-hes-popular-nikol-pashinyan-becomes-armenian-pm
