In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania there will be another public holiday on March 8th, International Women's Day.

This is part of the red-red coalition agreement that Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD) and Simone Oldenburg (left) presented on Monday in Schwerin.

Schwesig said that Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has so far had fewer public holidays than other countries.

A good working environment is based on the balance between work, productivity and relaxation.

Another holiday is feasible, "our economy will not suffer from it".

Matthias Wyssuwa

Political correspondent for Northern Germany and Scandinavia based in Hamburg.

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They want to promote equality in the country, and March 8 is "international day of struggle for equal rights of women and men".

This year there are ten public holidays in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, and twelve in Bavaria, Saarland and Baden-Württemberg.

New teaching positions planned

The focus of the coalition agreement with the heading “Awakening 2030” with its 77 pages is made up of three blocks on the economy, social responsibility and climate protection.

The red-red coalition wants to create or secure a thousand teaching positions by finding teachers for previously vacant positions, maintaining expiring positions and creating new ones.

The non-contributory daycare center introduced in the last legislative period is also to be retained, and the quality of care is now to be upgraded.

The aim is to improve the care ratio and to help the municipalities to pay the educators better.

An on-call bus system is to be introduced throughout the country in order to improve the connection to local public transport, which is particularly difficult in rural areas.

In addition, a senior citizen ticket is planned, with which senior citizens can use buses and trains in the country for one euro a day.

Personnel decisions not yet made

Despite the many projects, Schwesig emphasized that a coalition agreement was being presented “that is financially realistic”.

She spoke of a “good mix of continuity and departure”.

“Continue as before - only worse”, that could be the motto of the left-wing coalition, criticized the parliamentary manager of the CDU parliamentary group, Sebastian Ehlers.

"And as cloudy as some of the announcements in the press conferences were, they remain as cloudy in the coalition agreement."

Red-Red cling to the "old left misconception that politics can ensure more growth, employment and higher wages".

On the other hand, there is no talk of a boost for innovation and the urgently needed acceleration in matters of digitization.

Instead, new burdens would be created.

The SPD had clearly won the state election at the end of September with 39.6 percent of the vote.

The CDU, which has been the country's small coalition partner since 2006, achieved the worst election result in the country with 13.3 percent.

The Left Party also suffered losses and only got 9.9 percent.

After exploratory talks, the SPD decided on a coalition with the Left, with which it had ruled the country from 1998 to 2006.

Both Schwesig and Oldenburg praised the negotiations on Monday, saying they had discovered much more similarities than expected, said Oldenburg.

By the end of the week, a decision should be made on the staff and the ministries, on Saturday party conferences will vote on the coalition agreement.

Schwesig is to be re-elected in the state parliament next Monday.