Since the beginning of the Ukraine war, the Green Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann has been on the move with an unfriendly message: Life is becoming uncomfortable in the former prosperity wonderland of Baden-Württemberg.

In view of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, every citizen must reckon with considerable impositions.

So far, this has been a blanket statement, which, however, differed significantly in terms of clarity and clarity from the reactions of other prime ministers to the new world situation.

Now, for the first time, Kretschmann has specified what he understands by unreasonable demands: Teachers have to be prepared for longer working hours and more teaching hours.

Ruediger Soldt

Political correspondent in Baden-Württemberg.

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On Tuesday, Kretschmann even tightened the tone of the debate.

Union officials, who immediately rejected the proposal amid the pandemic's strain on teachers, should not be repeating their "usual Latin."

When asked whether this might limit the compatibility of family and work, and whether a stricter regulation might also be misogynistic, the Green said: "We should say goodbye to such sensitivities - given the world situation in which we are." On Tuesday evening Kretschmann repeated his plea for longer working hours in view of an impending economic crisis at the "Forum Dollenberg" event in the Black Forest.

4000 additional teachers needed

Since the start of the Ukraine war, Baden-Württemberg has taken in 85,000 refugees from Ukraine, more than in the refugee fall of 2015/2016.

Above all, there are 9,000 children and young people among the refugees who need a daycare or school place.

According to a calculation by the Baden-Württemberg Association of Philologists, 4,000 additional teachers would have to be hired in order to guarantee schooling for the Ukrainian students.

Kretschmann argues: In order to get 1,000 additional teaching positions, all part-time teachers would only have to work one hour more per week.

Kretschmann says he thinks "out loud" about such impositions.

However, this does not fit in with the fact that the Green Ministry of Education gave the CDU-led Ministry of the Interior the task of examining how working hours for teachers could be legally extended at the beginning of April.

The Ministry of the Interior is responsible for the Civil Service Act.

The result: state civil servants are entitled to part-time work;

they can decide whether they want to work 50, 70 or 100 percent.

If one wanted to abolish the statutory entitlement to part-time employment, the law would have to be changed.

But that's not what the green-black state government is about.

Only the lower limit for the reduction in working hours is to be restricted.

Since 2016, teachers have been able to reduce their working hours to 25 percent, which is around ten hours a week.

Eight years ago, shortly before the end of the legislative period, the then green-red government did the teachers a favor and lowered the lower limit from 30 to 25 percent.

That could now be corrected by decree - because the southwest, see world situation, is in crisis mode.