YEREVAN. – The “Dem.Am [I am against]” civic initiative, which opposes the mandatory component of the new pension law in Armenia, on Friday will stage a demonstration outside the Presidential Palace, the movement’s Facebook account has informed. 

“The President of Armenia is the head of the country as well as the guarantor of the upholding of the Constitution and the constitutional order.

“Today, when the government violates the Constitution and the Constitutional Court’s decision, we need to address our clear demand and appeal to the president, to perform his duties enshrined in the Constitution,” the “Dem.Am” movement’s respective statement specifically reads.

On April 2, the Constitutional Court (CC) of Armenia declared unconstitutional a whole series of articles in the new Law on Funded Pensions. Despite this ruling, however, the state-run financial institutions still oblige the employers to make mandatory funded pension cuts from the salaries of their employees. The respective reasoning is that the CC gave the parliament and the government until September 30 to amend the aforesaid law’s provisions that were deemed unconstitutional.