At today’s Riigikogu session, the coalition did not support the bill put forward by the Center Party group to make the second Easter holiday a national holiday, which, according to vice-chairman of the group Vadim Belobrovtsev, in his national holiday. and a day off in most of the European Union and also in many other countries, and Estonia could also relate to the cultural place of Europe in this respect.
“Our close neighbors in Finland, Sweden, Latvia and Lithuania also celebrate a second Easter holiday every year, in total it is done in more than a hundred countries. In the European Union, the only exceptions are Estonia, Malta and Portugal, where the second day of Easter is a normal working day,” he said. Vadim Belobrovtsev of charge. “In the Estonian calendar, the first holiday of Easter and the first holiday of Pentecost are always celebrated on Sunday, so they cannot be considered a day of rest. Therefore, one extra day of rest in the form of a second Easter holiday would be entirely appropriate.”
The Estonian Council of Churches has also expressed full support for this change. “With this step, the situation of many companies that need to communicate with parent or subsidiary companies in other countries and with foreign partners in their work every day would be simplified,” said the representative of the Center Party. “Furthermore, an extra day off strengthens family relationships, as parents and children have the opportunity to spend more time together, and gives working people more time to rest to replenish their energy reserves.” restore.”
Unfortunately, 48 MPs representing the coalition voted to reject the bill, after which it dropped out of the process. “Unfortunately, the Reform Party, the Social Democratic Party and Estonia 200 do not consider this change important,” said Vadim Belobrovtsev. “The behavior of the social democrats is particularly strange, because in 2011, when a similar bill was also in the proceedings of the parliament, they actively supported it. Sven Mikser, the chairman of the political party at the time, noted that the new day off would reduce stress and have a positive effect on people’s health. It seems that now that the Socialists are in coalition with the Reform Party, this approach has also changed.”
Vadim Belobrovtsev said that although several coalition MPs have fully supported this idea in private discussions, as it is not political and would certainly be popular among Estonian workers, in a plenary session, the politics of the road movement continued – the opposition proposal was suddenly voted down. “Unfortunately, we saw again today that the parliamentary culture is very low in Estonia, because the coalition acts like a rubber stamp and does not even include the content of the bill,” concluded Vadim Belobrovtsev.
