CYPRUS: Sunday shopping decree stunts opposition

In a successful stroke of genius, the Council of Ministers issued a decree on Wednesday, whereby all stores would be allowed to remain open on Sundays and late evenings on weekdays, overturning parliament’s attempts at taking executive control over the matter away from Labour Minister Zeta Emilianidou.

MPs had debated for months in an attempt to filibuster the issue and bring it to the eve of the previous decree’s expiry, thus forcing the government to cave in and committing consumers to mediaeval shopping rules.
Opposition MPs, all vying to retain their frail seats in the House of Representatives leading up to a general election in a year from now, had stripped the Minister of the right to issue periodical decrees, allowing stores to remain open throughout the island.
Instead, they had succumbed to voter pressure from owners of 24-hour kiosks and small convenience stores, neglecting the fact that Sunday shopping had created 7,000 new full time and part time jobs, so vital at times of economic crisis and a record 16% unemployment rate.
Some parties had even warned President Anastasiades not to challenge the parliamentary law by taking it to the Constitutional court, saying that he should respect the will of the majority in the House. However, there seemed to be no respect for the will of the majority of consumers who would have been troubled with the pre-2006 shopping hours coming into effect.
The Council of Ministers decided that as the parliamentary bill was deemed unconstitutional by the Attorney general, it would be best to issue a decree to keep matters as they are until the end of November, thus avoiding ugly scenes of shops shuttering down on weekends that would harm the island’s image as an all-year tourist destination.
Labour Minister Zeta Emilianidou also surprised the nay-sayers by announcing a subsidy scheme for micro-businesses employing up to four people, whereby 60% of the wages of a new hire for Sunday would be underwritten her ministry’s industrial training and employment fund.