Touching upon leader of Bright Armenia Party Edmon Marukyan’s statement that the government must double the pension of pensioners and increase funding for socially disadvantaged families, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Alen Simonyan told reporters that iIf the government opens the reserve fund and distributes funds to citizens, it won’t be able to pay salaries and cover expenditures for the army.

“Let’s assume the government distributes funds from the whole reserve fund. What is the government going to do after that? I would also be glad to hear that everyone will receive a certain amount of money, but this is illogical and unrealistic. A crisis concerns everyone and all countries and requires drastic solutions,” he said.

When told that the former authorities would blame the incumbent authorities for being populist when they were the opposition, Simonyan said the former opposition wouldn't state that the government should give out money to the people and not care about salaries and expenditures for the army.