In the discussion about a reorganization of holiday periods in Germany, Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) defended the special regulation for his state. "We have our biorhythms with the holidays - we want to keep that," said Söder on Wednesday evening at an event of the "Bild" newspaper. "We've always done it that way - it worked well."
In order to avoid congestion on the highways and to provide hotels with an even load, the federal states have agreed during the holidays on a so-called rolling system. It divides the countries into groups, which start one after the other in the summer holidays and alternate with early and later holidays - every year at a different time. Only Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg have so far been exempted.
Hamburg and Berlin are therefore campaigning for new rules for the summer holidays. Your goal is to stretch the days off less time. So the summer holidays should begin only from 1 July, the different dates of the countries move closer together and the annual shifts turn out as small as possible.
By insisting on the late summer holidays, Bayern and Baden-Württemberg are attacking federalism from the point of view of Berlin's Mayor Michael Müller (SPD): "It can not be that some believe that federalism is just enough to assert their own interests but it is a give and take, "said the head of the Berlin government to Deutschlandfunk. At some point you have to think about consequences.
Other provinces had criticized the attack violently: "This shot from Bavaria will backfire: Now every country just like Bayern set the summer holidays alone," said Hamburg Education Senator Ties Rabe (SPD) and added: "Have fun on the long Bavarian highways. "
Niedersachsen also sees no reason for a Bavarian special way: "Only together we can find the best solution," said the Ministry of Education on request. The summer holidays were to be agreed upon by the Conference of Ministers of Education - "from a pedagogical point of view".