German politicians have started a heated debate over the liberalisation of shop opening hours in the run up to Christmas.
The opposition conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) prompted the controversy when it refused to back a plan by fellow opposition parties and some junior government coalition partner MPs to relax hours and allow supermarkets to open on Advent Sundays.
CDU Baden-Wuerttemberg prime minister Erwin Teufel defended the party's stance. He said the idea was a 'completely incorrect approach'.
He added that there was no need to open shops on Sundays in the pre-Christmas period, because a number of advent markets were open for business for people who could not limit their spending to weekdays.
Teufel said many church leaders were worried that Sunday shopping would cause consumers to neglect their spiritual side in the rush to go on spending sprees.
Opposition Free Democratic Party (FDP) member Rainer Bruederle originally proposed the plan and has had widespread support, including that of governing Green Party politicians such as Hubert Ulrich. Bruederle and other key German politicians argued that Sunday shopping would liven up business at Christmas.
However, some Green MPs, such as Katrin Goering-Eckardt, sided with the CDU. She said that more consumer-ism at weekends would only marginally reinflate the market.
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