Erfurt (dpa/th) - Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (left) warned in a debate about filling the shelves of 24-hour shops on Sundays and public holidays against relaxing the public holiday law. "If we grind the holidays, then we will also grind the Sundays," said Ramelow on Friday in his role as a member of the state parliament in Erfurt. "Then every day will be a working day." He was reacting to a draft law by the AfD parliamentary group.
The AfD wanted to change the Thuringian public holidays and commemoration days law. An exemption should be included for the stocking of automatic village shops on public holidays. The AfD did not find a majority in the vote in the state parliament.
He is for the shops that are open day and night in rural areas, said Ramelow. He is grateful to the CDU parliamentary group for fighting for a funding program for these shops. However, their round-the-clock opening should not result in Sundays and public holidays being turned into normal working days - employee protection is important. In addition, there would have to be an area limit for the automatic shops - not that they would become large hardware stores or supermarkets, said Ramelow as a member of parliament for the left.
According to the Ministry of Infrastructure, there are currently six 24-hour shops in Bavaria that have been set up with state subsidies. In the past two years, more than 1.8 million euros in subsidies have been made available for this business. According to the ministry, a 24-hour shop was opened in a district of Mühlhausen this year, and another is to follow in the coming weeks in Görsbach (Nordhausen district). According to the ministry, however, some planned projects have also collapsed.
