MPs in Armenia exchanged blows in Parliament amid a disagreement over the government’s economic response to the coronavirus crisis.

During a debate in the Armenian Parliament on 8 May, Edmon Marukyan, the leader of ALDE Party member party Bright Armenia, accused the ruling My Step faction loyal to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian of failing to help ordinary citizens amid the economic shutdown.

His criticism triggered angry remarks from ‘My Step’ MPs in the chamber and in particular one MP Sasun Mikaelian, who displeased by what he heard, made gestures and eventually got up from his seat and threw a punch before the incident was broken up by other members of parliament.

The Parliament sitting was later resumed and Mr Marukyan continued his speech on the topic noting that such an incident was unprecedented for the Armenian Parliament and that past cases did not involve beating a Head of a Political Party.

He stated the Bright Armenia party condemns the incident and the use of violence and hate speech in the Parliament and noted their further activities will be based on political evaluation of the incident by the ruling coalition and the Prime Minister.