Vice government spokesman Steffen Meyer dismissed talk of abolishing a public holiday as mere speculation on Friday. While he declined to comment directly on whether the federal government was considering such a measure, Meyer acknowledged that in the current strained economic climate, “suggestions are always being discussed”. He added that the government’s focus was on internally preparing and announcing agreed-upon decisions.
This follows previous statements where the Chancellor described the idea of scrapping public holidays as a recurring topic, comparing it to the legend of “the monster of Loch Ness” and expressing general reluctance to engage in such discussions. In a televised interview a couple of weeks ago, he had suggested that Pentecost Monday “could” potentially be abolished, yet immediately clarified that “we will keep it”. Subsequently, reports indicated that the CDU/CSU bloc had proposed at the coalition committee meeting at the Villa Borsig last weekend to abolish May 1st as a statutory holiday, a move reportedly causing outrage within the SPD.
Meyer stated to the dpa that he was not commenting further on the matter because it was “extremely important that we conduct these discussions with the utmost seriousness, but also in complete confidentiality”.
Economists estimate that every additional working day could increase the GDP by about 0.2 percent. Germany observes nine nationwide public holidays, four of which are legally defined never to fall on a weekend. Another five rotate across the seven days of the week, typically resulting in the loss of three to four working days annually. Furthermore, individual states observe additional holidays, resulting in further days off work.
